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COraBIGHT DEPOStn 



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The Coming of 
The Slav 




Charles Eugene Edwards 



1 



I 



THE COMING^ 
OF THE SLAV 



BY 

CHARLES EUGENE EDWARDS 

Author of 
"Protestantism in Poland'' and "Prayers from Calvin'' 




PHILADELPHIA 

THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 
1921 



Copyright, 1921 
CHARLES EUGENE EDWARDS 



Printed in the United States of America. 



©CI.A854233 



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TO MY WIFE 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface 7 

Foreword 10 

Introduction 13 

Chapter I. Historical Aspects 17 

Dr. Washburn. Survey. Slav languages. Czechoslo- 
vakia's situation. Need of the gospel. Lord Radstock 
and Pashkof . The Reformation. 

Chapter II. Colportage 38 

Colportage throughout Slavdom, results, anecdotes. 
Whittier. History of colportage. Bible societies. 
The Apocrypha. 

Chapter III. Early Missions Among Slavs 73 

Statements by Drs. Montgomery, McEwan, Losa, Boyce, 
S. J. Fisher. 

Chapter IV. Encouragements 91 

Mr. Prudky's journeys. Great accessions in Czecho- 
slovakia. President Masaryk. Monthly concert of 
prayer for missions. American Hussite Society. 

Supplement 117 

Bibliography. Area of Slavdom. Lord's Prayer in three 
languages. Justification for evangelical missions. 
Slav periodicals, versions of Scripture. Letters of 
Drs. Elterich and Hays. Mr. Prudky's journeys 
continued. Statistics. Comenius, 




THOMAS GARRIGUE MASARYK 
President of the Republic of Czechoslovakia 



PREFACE 

The following preface was written during the busy 
sessions of the Pan-Presbyterian Council at Pittsburgh 
in September, 1921, by Dr. F. Zilka. He is a professor 
in the Evangelical Theological Faculty of John Huss 
in the University of Prague, and was decorated by 
the Sorbonne of Paris. Rev. J. V. Kovar translated it 
from the Bohemian; and it is worthy of mention that 
Mr. Kovar traveled thousands of miles in Siberia with 
Czechoslovak troops. The writer wishes here to express 
cordial gratitude for the kindness of Prof. Zilka, and 
of Mr. Kovar. 

It is not customary for a foreigner to call the atten- 
tion of the reading public to a book by a native author, 
and it was only with great hesitation that ^yielded to 
Dr. Edwards' request to write these few sentences. 
In explanation of this unusual step, and at the same 
time in justification of it, is the fact that the subject 
of the book is far more alien to American readers than 
to myself. To me, as a Slav and a Czech, the matter 
with which Dr. Edwards is dealing is indeed near, 
very near to my heart. For this reason, though with 
some doubts, I consented to violate custom, and as a 
foreigner address a few words to American readers. 

Let me say, right at the beginning, that the book of 
Dr. Edwards bears traces of its American origin; it is 
specifically American. I think that any Slav would 
deal with the subject in a different way. But for 
American readers, and for that matter the English- 
reading public in general, the American way of grasping 
the whole problem, the American selection and arrange- 
tnent of the material is an advantage, because it takes 

7 



8 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

into account the interest of an American reader, and 
responds to his requirements. And if Slavic readers 
will not find in the book everything that they would 
like to see, no doubt they will appreciate the undeniable 
fact that Dr. Edwards is the first to draw attention to 
an important world problem, and to turn toward it 
the eyes of the other hemisphere in this way and from 
this standpoint. 

The interest of Dr. Edwards in the Slav was not 
awakened by the World War. When eleven years ago 
I had the pleasure of meeting him, I found that he had 
already a crystallized understanding of European 
Slavdom. Dr. Edwards' attempt to contribute to the 
solution of the Slav problem is not therefore, as with 
some, of a very recent date, and has not been called 
into existence only by the latest events, through which 
the Slavs were forced upon the attention both of 
America and of the rest of the world. It was not the 
collapse of the Russian front which caused a turn in 
the war and placed upon the Allies new and heavier 
tasks, after Russia had greatly helped by stemming 
the first and strongest and most dangerous impact of 
the German steam roller in the east, just as France 
and England did in the west; nor was it the present 
Bolshevik regime in Russia, and the horrors of famine 
and pestilence that drew the mind of Dr. Edwards 
to the distant east. If I am right, it was on one hand 
a purely scientific interest in unknown nations, and 
on the other, the practical problem of a polyglot immi- 
gration to the United States, the Slav immigrants 
numbering millions, that led Dr. Edwards more than 
ten years ago to write his first publications about Slavs. 

Since that time his interest in Slavdom has not 
diminished, but rather increased. This shows that 
English-speaking readers in general, and Americans in 
particular, have at hand an outcome of a theoretic as 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 9 

well as a practical study of this subject. Some portions 
of this book are the first attempt to throw light upon 
the Slav problem, and upon its significance for the 
world at large. It has its own viewpoint, which is 
evident in the conception and arrangement of the 
material. In a book of such limited proportions, no 
one will try to find a solution of all phases of the Slav 
problem, but I think that none has been overlooked. 
The book itself is a proof that it does not contain all 
that Dr. Edwards knows about Slavs. Much will 
depend upon the reception that this book may receive 
from its readers, to encourage him to tell more, perhaps 
from another angle. Let the book speak for itself, for 
its author, for Slavdom. 

I desire to call attention to one thing only: the 
problem of the Slav is not merely a European and 
Asiatic problem; it is a world problem. Great Britain 
and America are directly interested, the former by its 
proximity to Slavdom in Asia, the other because it is a 
neighbor across the Pacific, which does not divide but 
unites, is not a barrier as it used to be, but a bridge. 
At the same time the Slav problem reaches the heart of 
Europe and dominates the whole of its southeastern 
portion, a region where three continents meet and 
many interests intermingle. It is and will be a world 
problem indeed. 

I hope that the love and enthusiasm of this dear 
friend of Slavs, which prompted him to undertake the 
writing of the book, will be rewarded by a kind reception 
on the part of the reading public. I further hope that 
readers will be stimulated to a more thorough study of a 
question which is inevitably going to be a deeply burning 
question in the near future. 

F. ZILKA. 
Prague^ Czechoslovakia, 



FOREWORD 

The World War began with the Slavs, Serbia in the 
foreground, Russia soon involved. The entire course 
of it, especially many of its crises, was largely affected 
by Slav successes or failures. The achievements of the 
Czechoslovak army shone more brilliantly by contrast 
with their dark background, the collapse of Russia. 
The leading spirit in the organization of that army, 
and subsequently in the formation of the Czechoslovak 
Republic of which he is the head. President T. G. 
Masaryk, emerged as the most popular and successful 
statesman of Europe. The War was a new revelation 
of the Slavs, especially to America. Christian America 
should appreciate the lesson, and should know the 
importance of evangelizing Slavdom. The Slav family 
of nations has generally been omitted from consideration 
in the great missionary conventions of the past genera- 
tion. If this habit continues, it will seriously impair 
the grand strategy, as soldiers express it, of the world's 
evangelization. The logic for evangelizing the vast 
Slav lands of Europe and Asia, which are neighbors to 
the bulk of the world's population, is the logic which 
justifies the Reformation itself, or the same as the 
arguments for evangelizing Latin America, which were 
thoroughly demonstrated by the Panama Congress. 

No Slav land has so many evangelicals as Czecho- 
slovakia. No other is rated so high for intelligence 
and culture. No other has so intense an admiration 
for its great Reformer, John Huss. Thus there is "a 
spark of Protestantism in every Bohemian." A far 
greater movement than "Los von Rom' (''away from 
Rome") of some years ago, is progressing in Bohemia 

10 




GEORGE W. MONTGOMERY, D.D. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 11 

and Moravia toward the ideals of Huss and the Hussites. 
America helped Czechoslovakia to win her present 
liberty, after a thralldom of centuries. Christian 
America should now help these seekers after a Saviour 
to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made 
us free. 

No Christians in America have done more for Slavs 
than the Presbyterians, especially in the work of 
colportage, which is illustrated in portions of this book. 
No presbytery has done more for the Slavs in its bounds, 
also for Czechoslovakia, than Pittsburgh Presbytery, 
under the guidance of its superintendents, Dr. Vaclav 
Losa, and the late Dr. George W. Montgomery. Dr. 
Montgomery's death was a sore bereavement for this 
cause. Dr. W. L. McEwan, who was instrumental in 
sending the call to Dr. Losa to begin work for Slavs in 
this presbytery, has proposed the best method for 
aiding Czechoslovakia, through the "American Hussite 
Society" which he organized, and of which he is the 
first president. Dr. Losa is its corresponding secretary, 
with his office in the Fulton Building, Pittsburgh. If a 
multitude of members could be enrolled in this society, 
this new Hussite movement might not only pervade 
Czechoslovakia, but Slavdom also. Then, with Slav- 
dom as a base, the evangelization of the world would 
be hastened. It is the purpose of this book to turn 
attention to this part of the Christian conquest, and 
awaken prayer for so glorious a consummation! 

Note 

We have abundance of books on the evangelization 
of Latin America and of Latin Europe. There are the 
three volumes of the Panama Congress, works on Mex- 
ico and South America, some prepared as mission-study 
class books. There is George Borrow's 'The Bible in 
Spain," recognized as a classic of English literature. 



12 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

There are books about the McAU Mission in France, 
about French Protestants, about Waldensians in Italy, 
and so on. The population of the Latin world may 
exceed a hundred and seventy millions; and the world 
probably has as many millions of Slavs. But precious 
little has been written about the evangelization of 
Slavdom; and this work is probably the only book 
written from a Presbyterian standpoint on the subject. 
In English we have five words meaning the same 
thing: Slav, Slavian, Slavic, Slavonic, Slavonian, 
though the latter may refer to Slavonia, a crownland 
of Hungary. It is superfluous to add a sixth word, 
"Slavish," which is a misspelled German word, and 
also objectionable, as it might be mistaken for ^'slavish." 
Slavdom, "the domain or sphere of influence of the 
Slavs," has equivalent expressions, as "the Slavic 
nations" or "the Slavonic world." 



INTRODUCTION 

Many Slavs have dreamed of a day when Slav 
nationalities shall have a greater prominence m the 
world's affairs than has ever been recorded in history 
for the Latin or Teutonic races. This hope seemed 
warranted by the progress of Russia. 

But Czechoslovakia, from a religious point of view, 
may hold this key of promise. Survey the vast extent 
of Slavdom. Note the strategic position of Slav nations, 
in closer contact with each other, and with the masses 
of the world's population, than are the widespread 
Latin nations. Note the advantages in religious work 
from the similarity of Slav tongues. Then, too, it is 
easy to perceive that with Bohemia's central situation 
in Europe, with the intelligence of its people, with its 
language, having some possibilities of a "world lan- 
guage" in dealing with other Slavs, it could become a 
power for righteousness and peace, if it is a propagator 
of the gospel. 

Russia has been considered a menace to India, the 
more so if Germany controls its destinies. But if a 
new Reformation spreads through Czechoslovakia, and 
onward into Russia, the menace can be changed into a 
blessing. Every evangelical Slav can testify that 
Slavdom needs the gospel; and the arguments which 
prove that the gospel should be given to Latin America 
are entirely applicable to the Slavs. These are demon- 
strated by conditions prevailing among Russian priests, 
and by the situation revealed in Russia through the 
labors of Lord Radstock and his convert, Pashkof. 
Finally, the history of the Reformation among two 
Slav peoples, the Bohemians or Czechs, and the Poles, 

13 



14 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

which was stopped only by brute force, massacres, and 
exile, shows that the modern missionary movement, an 
expansion of the Reformation, is the hope and promise 
for all Slavdom. 

One form of evangelical elBFort has been applied to 
all of Slavdom, and among Slavs in America, namely, 
colportage. Bibles or Testaments were prepared in 
some Slav languages before the Authorized Version 
appeared in English. Experiences in such work at 
Pittsburgh, and by colporteurs of the Presbyterian 
Board of Publication, illustrate it for America; and the 
annual reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
furnish anecdotes of it in Slavdom. There is greater 
hindrance for colportage among Slavs dominated by 
Rome than among the Greek Orthodox. Not a Slav 
nation is without its converts and its Bible readers. 
And everywhere, for instance, among Italian Walden- 
sians, colporteurs are often pioneers for established 
missions. A difficulty encountered by colporteurs in 
Europe is that Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and German 
Lutherans insist upon having the Apocrypha. Are the 
great Bible societies right in excluding the Apocrypha 
from their publications? They certainly are, for the 
Apocrypha contain ridiculous or hurtful errors; and 
these facts should be more widely known. 

American evangelical missions among Slavs are 
examples for similar enterprises in all Slavdom. For 
years the Presbyterian roll of Slav workers has been 
longer than that of any other denomination. This 
statement should occasion no absurd pride, but pro- 
voke to love and good works. In the Czechoslovak 
Review, July, 1921, an account is given of Dr. Vincent 
Pisek's work in New York City where he was ordained 
and installed pastor of the Jan Hus Presbyterian 
Church in 1883. In 1887 he induced three theological 
students to come to America, Drs. Pokorny, Bren, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 15 

and Losa, who eventually labored in Bohemian settle- 
ments in western states. This work of theirs has 
since grown into two presbyteries.* 

Not in rural communities only, but in cities also, 
have Bohemian churches been organized; and Presby- 
terians in Chicago, New York City, and Cedar Rapids 
have erected probably the finest evangelical Bohemian 
church buildings in America. It has been published 
that Chicago is the third Bohemian city, next to Vienna 
and Prague, and the third Polish city, next to Lodz 
and Warsaw. Suppose it be debated whether it stands 
second only to Prague as a Bohemian city, and second 
only to Warsaw^ as a Polish city. Still for years it has 
been undeniable that outside of Slavdom there is no 
greater Slav center than Chicago, and scores of Ameri- 
can towns have Slav colonies. In St. Louis, for years. 
Rev. George Wales King has interested Presbyterians 
of that city and also those of adjacent Illinois districts 
in Slavs, especially Balkan Slavs. He has devoted 
time and energy to the details of colportage, and in 
many a bulletin has he advocated all such missionary 
work. In Dubuque, Iowa, and Bloomfield, New Jersey, 
the Presbyterian Church has schools, originally German, 
where for many years Slav instructors and students 
have been enrolled among other nationalities. 

Presbyterian Slovak work has been centered in 
Pennsylvania, its Polish work in Baltimore, its Ruth- 
enian work in Pittsburgh and some eastern cities. To 
describe all this fully would be to traverse the ground 
of the late Dr. McLanahan's book, "Our People of 
Foreign Speech," or on a smaller scale, the appendix 
to Dr. Grose's "Aliens or Americans.^" This plan 

* Statistics, 1921: Central West (Bohemian) Presbytery: Min- 
isters, 20. Churches, 21. Communicants, 1939. Infants baptized, 
129. Sunday-school members, 1343; Southwest Bohemian Presby- 
tery: Ministers, 9. Churches, 12. Communicants, 479. Infants 
baptized, 52. S. S. members, 526. 



16 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

requires a periodical revision, or even a series, like 
**Sion," the Bohemian Yearbook edited by Dr. Losa. 
A large space is here given to Pittsburgh Presbytery's 
work, partly because of its remarkable features and its 
methods, the same as those of foreign missions, and 
partly because this book owes much to the cooperation 
of numerous friends in that region. 

It is almost unknown to Americans that Bohemian 
colonies, some having Reformed churches, are found in 
parts of Russia, also in regions dominated by Poles, 
and a few in Jugoslavia. Here are possible centers for 
aggressive missionary work in regions of Slavdom at 
various distances from Czechoslovakia. The journeys 
of Mr. Prudky among these settlements are accordingly 
significant. In Poland are two Reformed synods of 
Polish churches, with which these Bohemian churches 
are in correspondence. The overwhelming accessions 
to evangelical churches in Bohemia and Moravia have 
had no parallel in Europe for centuries. At such a 
juncture it greatly aids their cause that the President 
of their Republic, Thomas G. Masaryk, is one of their 
number. His apt quotation from the great Bohemian 
reformer, Comenius, when he addressed the Czecho- 
slovak National Assembly, reveals his spirit. 

In conclusion, two things are always urged in plans 
for missionary progress: prayer, and money or its 
equivalent. Summing up the practical things that 
American Christians could do for Czechoslovakia, one 
is to give to it and to Slavdom some place in the topics 
for the Monthly Concert of Prayer for Missions; another 
is to form branches of the ''American Hussite Society" 
which has been created for the purpose of aiding this 
truly Hussite movement. 



Chapter I 

HISTORICAL ASPECTS 

The Living Age, in February, 1898, published an 
article under the caption, "The Coming of the Slav" 
by Dr. George Washburn, who was at that time president 
of Robert College, Constantinople. He first gives the 
substance of an address delivered not long before by 
a young Slav: 

"The Latin and Teutonic races have had their day, 
and they have failed to establish a truly Christian civili- 
zation. They have done great things in the organization 
of society, in the development of material wealth, in 
literature, arts, and science, and especially in recog- 
nizing and securing in some degree the rights of the 
individual man; but they have exalted the material 
above the spiritual, and made Mammon their god. 
They have lost the nobler aspirations of youth and are 
governed now by the sordid calculations of old age. 
We wait the coming of the Slav to regenerate Europe, 
establish the principle of universal brotherhood and 
the Kingdom of Christ on earth." 

Discussing this he remarks: "If it were the fancy of 
a single brain it would not be worth noticing; but as 
it is, in fact, the dream of a hundred million brains in 
Europe, it has some interest for those who are to be 
regenerated by the coming of the Slav. Englishmen 
and Americans used to have such dreams, and some- 
how, without much wisdom or much conscious direction 
on the part of their rulers, these dreams have got them- 
selves fulfilled in a measure. If we have failed to 
establish a truly Christian civilization in the world, 
and have left something for the Slavs to do, it is, per- 

17 



18 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

haps, our fault; but we have certainly done something 
toward the evolution of society. . . . The Latin 
races had certainly failed to realize their dreams when 
the Teutonic races took up the work and put new life 
into it. If now the Slavs can complete it, so much the 
better for us and the world, however painful the process 
may be. The Latin races have lost nothing worth 
having by our leadership, and if the Slavs are to bring 
in a truly Christian civilization and universal brother- 
hood, then Latin, Teuton, and Slav will share alike in 
all the happy results which 'must follow.' " Dr. Wash- 
burn's conclusion was that "for the present the coming 
of the Slav means the extension and increase of the 
political power of Russia." 

Since that date much water has flowed under Slav 
bridges. The rise and liberation of Czechoslovakia was 
a remarkable phenomenon of the War. Without ven- 
turing to prophesy that this event foreshadows a 
universal Slav advancement, it is certain that for 
centuries Czechoslovakia has had no such opportunity 
as that afforded by its new freedom; and that this is of 
profound significance with reference to its evangeliza- 
tion, together with that of other Slav countries. More- 
over, this evangelization will hasten the same Christian 
work throughout the world, 

A glance at maps of continents would show the folly 
or wrong of any program for world evangelization which 
omits Slavdom. Europe and Asia contain most of the 
world's population. Supposing a conqueror to gain the 
mastery of these two continents, the domination of 
the world might seem an easy problem. Such visions 
have fascinated military minds, will probably do so 
again, and are suggestive for the statesmen of Imman- 
uel's kingdom. Russian and Polish dominions, Czecho- 
slovakia, Jugoslavia, and if we note its language, not 
its racial antecedents, Bulgaria — that is Slavdom. In 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 19 

its sphere of influence, at least, as noted by anxious 
diplomats, are Japan, Korea or Chosen, Manchuria, 
China, Tibet, India, Persia, Asia Minor, some other 
Asiatic countries also being sensitive to Slav power; 
and in Europe, the Turks, Greeks, Italians, Hungarians, 
Germans, Scandinavians, and others meet the Slavs 
in war and peace. England and France were allies of 
Slavs. This survey of nations aggregates possibly a 
billion of souls. 

A hint of danger to the world's peace, also to the 
cause of evangelical missions, may arouse us to the 
importance of including Slavdom in any statesmanlike 
scheme for world evangelization. In the Nineteenth 
Century, October 1919, page 786, Herr Werner Daya's 
book, with its subtitle, "Russian Asia as Germany's 
Economic Peace- Aim" is quoted: 

"For the first time in history the closing-in naval 
policy of England, which for centuries has held the 
mastery of the world by a uniform concentration of 
all her forces in one direction, will be countered by an 
equally comprehensive and equally powerful concen- 
tration of an Overland policy." Then, if Germany 
controls Russian Asia, "we should be able in any 
future war to sweep down upon India and drive the 
English out of Asia into the sea." What then would 
become of the great work of British and American 
missions in that Indian Empire, built up for genera- 
tions, and ere long to gain, as has been fondly hoped, 
several millions of converts? America can sympathize 
with the danger perceived by British statesmen, when 
they stopped the propaganda of German missionaries 
in India, and removed them from their fields. Will 
Germany, approaching India through Slavdom, turn 
the tables upon Anglo-Saxons, and expel all our mission- 
aries? On the other hand, let America follow Christ, 
believing that he is Lord of peace and war, and that his 



20 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

command to seek first the Kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, will add political advantages to the 
nations that obey it. Then another and expanded 
Reformation may, through the grace of God, occur in 
Slavdom as well as in India. The Reformation defeated 
the plans and power of those who thought that the 
dominion of the world was in their hands. Modern 
evangelical missions have the same doctrines, purpose, 
methods, and results as those of the Reformation. 
America is the child of the Reformation, and owes its 
common schools to John Calvin. Let America be a 
worker together with God, and while she redoubles her 
aid for India, let her aid evangelical brethren in Slav- 
dom, whose spiritual ancestors were the first Reformers. 
Thus a danger will become a victory which will speed 
the salvation of the world. 

Atffirst sight, the great array of publications that con- 
cern Slavdom would indicate that it has no solidarity. 
History records that Poles have fought Russians. Their 
churches are different, though their ideas of religion 
may be much the same, the reverse of evangelical. 
Serbians fought Bulgarians, though both have Greek 
Orthodox churches, which are the most numerous in a 
summary of Slavdom. Greeks themselves have fought 
Greek Orthodox Slavs. The Greek and Roman 
churches among Slavs are opposed, excluding each 
other's members. The unity of Slavdom is further 
broken by a singular compromise, the Greek Catholic 
organizations, adhering to the pope but without a 
Latin ritual, whose married priests have surprised the 
Irish Catholics in America. In smaller numbers there 
are Protestant Slavs and Mohammedan Slavs. Some 
statesmen have feared Pan-Slavism; others, aware of 
these divisions, see as much diversity of feeling among 
Slavs as among other Europeans. 

Yet there is a solidarity, too little understood and of 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 21 

practical importance, due to the resemblance of Slav 
languages. A Bohemian can learn to read Polish or 
Russian in a month. The Slovak language has some 
grammatical forms more like the tongue of John Huss 
than the modern Bohemian. There has been no 
distinct Slovak Bible, and where they were allowed to 
read it, they have used the famous Kralicka Bohemian 
Bible. Grammars have been prepared for Croatians 
and Serbians, who speak the same language, a Croatian 
page in Roman type, the opposite Serbian page in a 
modified Russian alphabet. No wonder the Allies 
approve the experiment of combining them with the 
Slovenes, in one government of Jugoslavia. The 
Russian alphabet with modifications is used by Rus- 
sians, Ruthenians, Serbians, Bulgarians, and the 
Roman alphabet, with diacritical marks, by Bohemians, 
Slovaks, Poles, Croatians and Slovenes. But, as spoken, 
this family of tongues has striking resemblances. Their 
declensions of nouns, their pronouns, prepositions, 
adverbs, and some common words of their vocabulary, 
are features of the family likeness. "Mamma, give me 
a kolatchy'' a little cake with preserves in the center, 
is a word universally understood by Slavs. Seton- 
Watson, states that a Slovak peddler *'can wander from 
Pressburg to Vladivostock without encountering seri- 
ous linguistic difficulties." 

Take the Gospel of John as a language lesson. Let 
a Pole hear it read in Bohemian, or a Bohemian hear 
it in Polish. It is profound in theology, of doctrinal 
importance, but simple, with many repetitions in 
vocabulary, having about eight hundred words of 
common life, a good start for a beginner in any language. 
With attention the Pole or the Bohemian recognizes 
so many words of the other's language that he soon 
comprehends whole paragraphs or chapters. With 
varying facility, perhaps corresponding to the relative 



22 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

distance of other Slavs from Czechoslovakia or from 
Poland, they would comprehend the pronunciation 
and vocabulary of all other Slav nations. 

Here is an interesting consequence from these 
resemblances. In Russian churches the ritual is 
recited in "a dead language," and it has been sup- 
posedly as dead as the Latin of the Romish ritual. 
Cyril and Methodius, the first missionaries among 
Slavs, used that language of the Russian ritual a 
millennium ago, a language now no longer spoken. 
Seemingly contradictory statements about it need not 
puzzle us. Stupid, inattentive hearers may not com- 
prehend it. Cultured or attentive listeners, hearing it 
frequently, recognize the words as they would from 
any other Slav tongue, and, with profound interest in a 
language made venerable by religious use for centuries, 
proudly declare that they understand it all. Anglo- 
Saxon Gospels are also traced to early centuries, and 
are part of a course in English study; yet it is doubtful 
if any Englishman could understand them when read 
as easily as Slavs comprehend their ancient ritual. 

But there are consequences more practical and 
important. Dr. V. Losa, a Bohemian, undertook 
mission work in Pittsburgh Presbytery in 1900. He 
was in contact from the first with Bohemians, Slovaks, 
Ruthenians, and other Slavs. All soon understood 
Bohemian preaching and joined in singing Bohemian 
hymns. In his prayer meetings, Scriptures were read, 
verse about, from different Slav versions, as each man 
preferred, yet this variety of languages made no con- 
fusion, but added interest to the exercise. For years, 
with growing usefulness. Dr. Losa demonstrated that 
a well-prepared Bohemian could regard the entire 
mass of Slavs as his mission field, especially as a body 
of well-trained helpers from these nationalities, with 
the divine blessing, was formed to cooperate with hirp. 




VACLAV LOSA, D.D. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 23 

Let similar methods and evangelical zeal be applied a 
thousandfold, in ten thousand communities of Slavdom, 
and an evangelical solidarity, the best in the world, 
will be created among all Slav nations. 

Czechoslovakia, about a thousand kilometers long 
and in places hardly more than a hundred kilometers 
broad, lies in the heart of Europe, equally distant from 
the great seas, the Adriatic, the North, and the Baltic. 
It has four divisions, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and 
Slovakia, and later, Rusinia, a district of Ruthenian 
Slavs was added, by request of its people, to the east 
of Slovakia. The total area is about 56,000 square 
miles, and the population fourteen millions. It lies 
athwart the Berlin-Bagdad Railway, an important fact 
in international relations. 

Bohemia is supposed to get its name from an ancient 
Celtic tribe, the Boii, who also gave their name to 
Bavaria. The native name of the people, the Czechs, 
is understood to be derived from an ancient ancestor. 
The country is the westernmost Slav land in Europe, 
like a wedge between northern and southern Germans, 
hence a battle ground of the two races for centuries, 
and long before Huss. It is diamond-shaped, the points 
coinciding nearly with those of the compass. Its streams 
generally flow into the Moldau (Vltava), a branch of 
the Elbe flowing northwestward, a channel for com- 
merce through Saxony. And Bohemian commerce 
follows the Danube southeastward. If canals connect 
the Danube with the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula, 
Czechoslovakia will be a center of extensive communi- 
cations; and it hopes for development of water power. 
Bohemia's area is rich, half of it under cultivation; 
more than haK of Austria's revenue from taxation 
came from Bohemia. There are mountain walls on 
three sides, but no distinct ridge toward Moravia, 
where the people speak the same language, and have 



24 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

always been associated with Bohemians. The famous 
Moravian Brethren after emigrating to Germany 
became Germanized. Brunn (Brno) is Moravia's 
capital; and Prague, the capital of Bohemia, was pro- 
nounced by Humboldt the most beautiful inland town 
of Europe. With the annexation of suburbs, and the 
influx of population since the armistice, Prague may 
soon contain more|than a million souls and become more 
attractive to tourists than Vienna or Budapest. Czecho- 
slovakia has minerals, also mineral springs, such as the 
Karlsbad and Marienbad resorts, and others, some 
thirty-three places in all, visited annually by hundreds 
of thousands. 

Slovakia in its first year of liberty made a rapid 
advance in education. It had about 5000 teachers in 
elementary schools; and in grammar, secondary, 
technical, and university grades, about 600 Czech 
professors, besides many Slovaks. There were 42 
secondary schools, with nearly 4800 pupils. There 
was a development also in the press and in libraries. 
Bela Kuhn, in 1919, cruelly invaded Slovakia and over- 
ran a third of the country, which lost a billion crowns; 
but this roused and united the patriotism of all 
Czechoslovakia. 

The great need of Slavdom is the gospel. America's 
polyglot immigration gives her the best of opportuni- 
ties for planting evangelical missions among these 
people. In free America Bunyan's vision has been 
fulfilled, and the tyrant, grinning from his cave, has 
not been able to molest the pilgrims on their way to the 
Celestial City. The two main groups of this European 
throng are Latin and Slav. The Slav converts, some- 
times with tears, ask Dr. Losa why America's religious 
privileges could not be enjoyed in Europe, especially in 
countries that never had a Reformation. Here are 
evangelical organizations equipped with everything 



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THE COMING OF THE SLAV 25 

that wealth can buy; surely the gospel cannot be an 
American monopoly which is not for Slavs. 

Christian workers soon see how tactless it is to ques- 
tion the sincerity of such people. It is like a question 
of veracity, which quickly kindles an American's 
indignation. It does not improve matters to intimate 
that their former state of superstition of formalism is 
good enough for their class of immigrants. If such 
darkness is not good enough for Americans, it is not 
good for any nationality on earth! True converts 
become epistles ''known and read of all men." He 
that stole steals no more, but works with his hands 
that he may have to give to him that needs. Putting 
away lying, he speaks truth with his neighbor. No 
longer drunk with wine, he is filled with the Holy 
Spirit. He knows, too, that his new experience is due 
to God's power, "according to that working of the 
strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, 
when he raised him from the dead, and made him to 
sit at his right hand in the heavenly places," the most 
sublime of illustrations. Not the lapsed only, the 
apparently susceptible, but the bigoted and fanatic, 
like Luther himself, may be the subjects of divine 
grace, should be offered the means of grace, and may 
become the best of accessions. 

Slav converts learn how America pours forth 
increasing millions for the evangelization of all races, 
in every clime, in every condition. And Slavdom, 
with its needs, is to them an open book. In normal 
times they are in unceasing communication with 
kindred beyond the seas. A Slav obtains that incom- 
parable treasure, the Bible, and writes to a kinsman or 
friend about it. The destination of that letter may be 
Prague in Bohemia, or Brno in Moravia. It may be 
Riga, the Baltic seaport, or Petrograd, or Moscow. 
It may be Warsaw or Lodz, the great towns of Poland, 



26 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

or Belgrade, in Balkan regions, or Odessa, the port on 
the Black Sea, or Tiflis, in the Caucasus, or Vladivos- 
tock, on the Pacific Ocean. It may be any one of the 
vast number of Slav communities from the Adriatic 
to the Pacific. 

Now show these Slavs the nine volumes of the 
Edinburgh Conference in 1910 and the three volumes 
of the Panama Conference in 1916. The wonder 
grows that Slavdom is omitted, when every logical, 
doctrinal, strategic reason calls for its inclusion. The 
Panama Conference was an American victory for 
missions. In 1900, at the Ecumenical Conference in 
New York, Latin America was included in the dis- 
cussions; but it was excluded from the Edinburgh 
Conference, through the opposition of some German 
societies and of elements in the Anglican Church. 
They regarded it as nominally Christian. At Edin- 
burgh missionaries from Latin America drew up a 
defense of their cause. They did not inquire whether 
dominant churches in these lands are not Christian 
churches, but affirmed that millions are there without 
the Word of God and the gospel. The work of societies 
in the United States and Canada has included missions 
in Latin and Oriental churches, while British and 
Continental societies have a narrower basis. The 
action of these American missionaries led to the 
Panama Conference; and their arguments lay the same 
foundation for the evangelization of Slavdom. If the 
Holy Spirit is poured out, why may not this Slav line 
of progress become the most rapid and effective of all, 
and a reenforcement for Christian missions in pagan 
and Mohammedan lands? 

Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu wrote three volumes on 
"The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians," devoting 
the third volume wholly to the subject of religion. His 
purpose, like that of most writers on Slavdom, is not 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 27 

evangelical, yet evangelical readers may obtain sug- 
gestions from this work. He writes at length on relig- 
ious feeling in Russia, on the Greek Orthodox Church, 
its usages, its clergy, married and unmarried; of the 
Schism or Raskol, the various sects not in the national 
Church, those that have priests, those that do not. 

Turn to the pages where he describes parochial 
visitations, where the * 'priest and deacon, in their 
vestments, go from house to house to sing an 'Alleluia.' 
The moment they enter, they turn to the eikons in the 
corner, rapidly recite the prayers for the occasion, give 
the inmate the crucifix to kiss, pocket their money, and 
go to the next house. . . . The clergy, on such occa- 
sions, frequently become the victims of a fine national 
quality — hospitality. ... So the parish clergy travel, 
. in full canonicals, dispensing blessings, and 
everywhere receiving in exchange a 'drink' and a few 
kopeks. The consequences are easily divined. By 
nightfall there is little left of the priest. . . . Such 
scenes are naturally not calculated to bring the dissen- 
ters back to the bosom of the Church. I once saw, in 
Moscow, in a picture gallery belonging to a wealthy 
raskolnik, a canvas by Perof representing just such a 
scene. The priest, crucifix in hand, totters along, while 
the drunken deacon soils the sacred vestments." 

In contrast we have the volume of "Pastor's 
Sketches" by the late Dr. Spencer, a Presbyterian 
pastor of Brooklyn, New York. He gives a touching 
account of his visits to a skeptical young Irishman, who 
died a believer in the atonement of Christ, and his 
interviews with the indifferent or Irresolute, to whom 
he gave the earnest message, "Behold, now is the day 
of salvation!" 

. Dr. Dalton, of Petrograd, told a story of Lord 
Radstock's evangelistic labors in that city, and of 
his convert. Colonel Pashkof, which appeared in the 



28 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Catholic Presbyterian of August, 1881. It illustrates 
the possibilities for gospel work in Slavdom when 
liberty is assured. Lord Radstock was an adherent of 
Plymouth Brethrenism, somewhat modified; but the 
story is not of theological tenets, telling rather how this 
fisher of men used his net in the service of his Master. 
He could address his hearers in French and English, 
with which many of the Russian nobility were familiar, 
and being a nobleman himself he could approach them 
on an equal footing. 

''His first appearance was somewhat strange. He 
knelt in silent prayer, then invited the audience to 
join him, as in the very simplest speech he lifted up his 
heart unto God. He spoke in an ordinary conversa- 
tional tone, regarding those things of which his heart 
was full. The loose threads of the somewhat vaguely 
expressed argument were all connected with the ever- 
recurring topic, the blessedness of those saved by 
Christ — saved now, for the Saviour is ever present 
and offers salvation to the sinner; and when this salva- 
tion has been truly received, he cannot be lost, for the 
Good Shepherd watches over his sheep. . . . 

"The worship of saints, and their supposed inter- 
cession, as maintained in the Russian as well as the 
Roman Catholic Church, have an evil effect upon the 
relation of the soul to the Saviour. Worshipers prefer 
to address saints rather than the Saviour, shrinking in 
their sinfulness before the majesty of the divine Son; 
and to this feeling of aversion his future advent as the 
Judge of the world, adds, as it were a fresh force." 
Lord Radstock said nothing against the "Orthodox" 
doctrine on this point; he carefully abstained from any 
attack upon the Church of the country, and indeed 
sought to maintain cordial relations with all. At the 
same time he was able, by the grace of God, to bring 
the personality of the Saviour, through the warm and 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 29 

loving way in which he expressed himself, almost 
into personal communication with the seeking and 
longing souls whom he addressed. So it came to pass 
with them, as with the disciples on a certain occasion, 
'*they saw no one, save Jesus only"; the cloudy veil of 
saints disappeared like the veil of clouds on a morning 
in spring; they saw before them in their devotions 
Jesus only, the Light of the world, and felt how 
graciously he laid his hands upon them, blessed, healed, 
and comforted them, and forgave their sins. As we 
are from youth accustomed to such views in evangelical 
Churches, we do not readily comprehend what a power- 
ful effect is produced when these truths are first brought 
home to the members of the Greek or the Romish 
Church. This side of the truth, moreover, is not pre- 
sented and emphasized as it ought to be in the teaching 
of the evangelical Church. 

'Tor weeks, in the highest society, in the circles of 
the nobility in Petrograd and Moscow, and even in the 
distant provinces, the most frequently recurring name 
was that of Lord Radstock. Some were enthusiastically 
in his favor; some derided the wonderful saint. Some 
'who came to scoff remained to pray.' " 

Dr. Dalton then mentions one of these. Colonel 
Basil Alexandrovitch Pashkof, who was one of the 
richest men in Russia, who had in youth served in the 
Guards, and had an early introduction to the highest 
circles of the aristocracy. When converted by the 
truth, "he took up the yoke of his Lord and Master, 
Jesus Christ. The nobility of the man's character was 
seen in the thoroughness with which, from the begin- 
ming, he was ready to confess Christ. He soon became 
the central point of the movement. . . . About this 
time. Dr. Craig, of the Religious Tract Society, had 
found his way to Petrograd, desirous of doing some 
work of usefulness in the Russian capital, on the lines 



30 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

of the society. The importance of such work was at 
once discerned by Lord Radstock. The emperor had 
already permitted the Bible to be circulated in the 
vernacular language of the country, and it was impor- 
tant that the circulation should be urged forward 
throughout the whole extent of the vast empire. If, 
hand in hand with this dissemination of the Scriptures, 
there could be circulated tracts and publications of a 
character fitted to counteract the influence of per- 
nicious and revolutionary publications, which had 
already begun to spread, it was clear that a most 
important point would be gained." 

Dr. Dalton then tells how the first meeting of a 
new association for this purpose met in his house, also 
the difficulties that were experienced in preparing suit- 
able literature, since mere translations from other 
languages were often ill adapted to Russian needs. 
He also describes the Christian activities of the 
Pashkof circles in hospitals and prisons, giving details 
of the conversion of a student nihilist, who himself 
wrote a tract entitled "He Loves Me." 

Further, he describes Colonel Pashkof's activities 
as a lay preacher. In droshky stalls and factories, 
year by year he carried on his work, telling his fellow 
sinners in plain language of the Saviour he himself had 
found. He strove to awaken first the consciousness of 
sin and then to lead them to the Saviour who bestows 
pardon and peace. "'On Sunday evenings the people 
assembled in Pashkof's own house; and the splendid 
apartments which were formerly open only to the elite 
of Russian society for balls now stood open and were 
filled to overflowing by crowds, mostly belonging to 
the very lowest orders of society, who desired to hear 
the good news of salvation, and were moved to tears 
and supplications for relief from the burden of sin." 
Sometimes the crowd numbered as many as thirteen or 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 31 

fourteen hundred. Dr. Dalton met a peasant far in 
the interior of Finland, who said, 'Tashkof has done 
us much good." He was informed that many Finnish 
laborers who worked in Petrograd had learned the Russ, 
and attended the meetings, carrying the same doc- 
trines that they had learned to their distant homes. 
Dr. Dalton also states how Colonel Pashkof courteously 
wrote a letter in answer to a request by a Russian 
Church dignitary, and depicted his own spiritual 
development, in the heartfelt language of one who has 
passed from death unto life, ''who speaks in the joyful 
tone of one who cannot wait to know whether his 
utterances square with ecclesiastical standards or not." 
The reply by this dignitary, also published, has "the 
reserved language of one who is accustomed to regulate 
all his utterances by such standards, and who is unable 
to conceive that there is any truth which cannot be 
regulated by them." Dr. Dalton in conclusion says 
that the Pashkof meetings had been prohibited, and 
that Pashkof had been requested to travel abroad for a 
time. He returned unmolested, but his princely halls 
were no longer crowded by willing hearers of the gospel. 
His followers were still active in various charities. 
Dr. Dalton's last sentence is: "The present arrest, 
however, that has been laid on the work is not to be 
regarded with dismay; there remains abundant encour- 
agement for the prayer of faith and the patience 
of hope." 

In a very different tone M. Leroy-Beaulieu relates 
some later vicissitudes of this movement: "It would 
be unjust to look on Pashkovism or Radstockism merely 
as one of fashion's vagaries. . . . Neither Radstock 
nor Pashkof claimed that they had invented a new 
doctrine. They avoided all semblance of dogmatical 
controversy, merely commenting on the gospel. The 
success of this drawing-room revival was due princi- 



32 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

pally to the fact that it answered a spiritual need too 
long neglected by the Orthodox clergy. Since the 
priests would not preach, laymen preached in their 
place. 

"The Pashkovites are not outside the pale of the 
Church. They are a living proof of the great latitude 
which can be enjoyed within her ancient precincts, 
from the lack of authority on doctrine. For the 
teaching of these Orthodox Evangelicals is tinged with 
Protestantism, with Calvinism; it is based on justi- 
fication, by faith, wherein it differs from that of 
Sutayef and others, who declare religion to consist 
entirely of works. The Radstockists believe them- 
selves to be assured of salvation when they feel inti- 
mately united with the Saviour. 'Have you Christ.f^' 
Lord Radstock used to ask each of his hearers; 'seek 
and ye shall find.' While the English lord could 
address only society people, Mr. Pashkof extended his 
apostolic work to the lower classes. He gathered 
together in his own house all sorts and conditions of 
men. . . . This was a great novelty for Russia, 
where the cultured and illiterate were not heretofore 
in the habit of being served with the same intellectual 
nourishment. Similar gatherings took place in Moscow 
and other cities, under the patronage of society women, 
who took particular pleasure, in their own salons, in 
seating the footmen behind the masters." He mentions 
Mr. Pashkof's activity in publications, which were 
scattered broadcast in thousands of copies as far as 
the Caucasus, and in Siberia. The narrative continues: 

"So long as Radstockism was confined to the 
privileged classes, the government did not pay much 
attention to it. If there is freedom anywhere in 
Russia, it is in the drawing room. It was different 
when the propaganda passed from the dress coat to 
the sheepskin. The people, with their innate logic, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 33 

did not always observe, in their attitude toward the 
Church and clergy, the deference dictated by good 
taste which persons drilled in the compromises of 
society life continued to show them. It happened, so 
one of Mr. Pashkof's friends told me, that some 
peasants heard him discourse on the uselessness of 
ceremonies and observances; and the first thing they 
did on returning to their izbas was to throw their 
eikons out of the window. The imperial government 
then thought it time to institute proceedings against 
the preaching aristocrats. Mr. Pashkof was sent out 
of Petrograd and advised to stay on his estates, then 
invited to travel abroad. Count Korf also had to 
leave the capital. The society founded by these 
gentlemen was dissolved in 1884; their press organ, the 
Evangelical Sunday Paper, was suppressed." 

It is contrary to the Constitution of the United 
States, and, thank God, to that of Czechoslovakia, to 
forbid evangelical assemblies, preaching, teaching, 
publications, and the formation of evangelical churches, 
open to all qualified applicants. As it is the purpose 
of this book to emphasize the significance of liberty 
in the land of Huss, reference to Bulgaria, and to 
Jugoslavia, is here omitted, except to mention that the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions, also the Methodists, have had missions in 
Bulgaria, duly reported in their publications. The 
Great War has spread abroad American ideas, among 
others, religious liberty, making it easier than before 
to win friends for that cause. The world never will 
find the way to safety and progress, until liberty for 
the gospel is won. 

No discussion of religion in Slavdom is adequate 
without mention of its Reformation. Such mention, 
among evangelical Bohemians, seems to be their irre- 
pressible habit. When they are to describe something 



34 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

contemporaneous they seem instinctively to begin 
with Huss or later Reformers. The suppression of 
their Reformation was a trick of foreign oppressors. 
The same oppressors tried to suppress their language, 
their literature, their national spirit. Time was when 
ninety-five per cent of their Bohemian population 
was accounted evangelical. Persecutions, massacre, 
exile, changed this, so that more than ninety-five per 
cent for a long period has been nonevangelical. Poland, 
too, had its Reformation, and Reformed churches, as 
by a miracle, survive in both these Slav lands. Yet 
there are books or chapters in books about the Reforma- 
tion which entirely omit the Slav Reformation, or 
barely allude to it. It is like a discussion of the War, 
which omits mention of any but the western front! 
At one time it seemed probable that Slav evangelicals 
would win great masses of Slavdom for the gospel. 
At one time nearly all the Polish Parliament were 
Protestants. If Calvin's hopes had been fulfilled, the 
history of all Slav nations since his day would have 
been different. His correspondence with Polish and 
Bohemian evangelicals shows a zeal for the extension 
of the gospel among these two Slav peoples that should 
be imitated by his followers to-day. A brief account of 
the Bohemian Reformation by Dr. W. G. Blaikie, the 
"Story of the Bohemian Church," was published years 
ago by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. Its 
last paragraphs, doubtless the best that could then be 
written about the needs of Bohemia, are now out of 
date. As a coimterpart the writer prepared an account 
of the Polish Reformation, ''Protestantism in Poland," 
published by the same Board. He was the more inter- 
ested in the subject from a knowledge of the noble 
labors of Dr. R. J. Miller, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
in promoting the evangelization of Poles, and his 
efforts to interest United Presbyterians and others in 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 35 

that work. Dr. Miller has succeeded in obtaining aid 
from the Presbyterian Board of Publication toward the 
support of a Polish evangelical paper, Slowa Zywota. 

On July 6, 1415, John Huss was burned to death by 
decree of the Council of Constance, and on that date, 
Bohemians of all creeds or of no creed unite to com- 
memorate his martyrdom. How is it that after five 
centuries they still seem to worship that hero, and, 
that as a proverbial consequence, there is "a spark of 
Protestantism in every Bohemian".^ 

Huss was distinguished as a popular preacher. As 
a Reformer, he was advancing on the same doctrinal 
lines as his English predecessor, Wyclif . He opposed 
the sale of indulgences. He desired the circulation of 
the Scriptures, and that communicants should partake 
of the cup as well as the bread, so that to this day, 
''the Book and the Cup" are symbols of the Reformed 
Bohemian Church. Huss so evidently loved the gospel 
that a true Hussite is clearly evangelical, and in fact 
Hussites were afterwards classed as Calvinists. Huss 
also cultivated the novelty of congregational singing. 
But as a patriot his name is endeared to multitudes who 
care nothing for religious doctrines. 

In 1409 German influence in the University of Prague 
gave way to native Bohemians, by a change in the 
voting. Then thousands of Germans departed and 
formed the University of Leipsic, while Huss became 
rector of the University. Huss reformed the spelling 
of the language, and the diacritical marks of Bohemian 
or Slovak are due to him, by which c, thus marked, 
has the sound of ch in church, and s, similarly, is 
sounded as in shall. His hand is thus seen in the 
grammar of every modern Bohemian or Slovak sen- 
tence and in the development of the literature. 

Through centuries of Hapsburg tyranny, the German 
iron entered the Bohemian soul, so that Huss was 



36 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

always the ideal of their national aspirations. Cru- 
sades were preached, hosts were assembled from nearly 
all of Europe to crush this small nation in the Hussite 
wars, but the genius of the Hussite general, Zizka, who 
was never defeated, drove them back. His battle 
hymn is still sung, in Bohemian and English, and is 
published in a fine illustrated edition of Bohemian 
folk songs, by Dr. Vincent Pisek, of New York City. 
Other Hussite hymns are still sung in Bohemian 
congregations. 

Wily enemies took advantage of divisions in Bohe- 
mian ranks. The Utraquists, also known as Calix- 
tines, from the chalice or cup which they demanded 
for the laity, became the aristocratic party, and the 
stricter Reform party, the Taborites, became the 
democratic party, sometimes disastrously conflicting 
with each other. The destruction of the Taborites 
ended the Hussite wars. More than a hundred years 
after the death of Huss, when Luther took part in the 
famous disputation at Leipsic, he thrilled the audience 
by daring to criticize the Council of Constance, and by 
announcing himself in effect a Hussite. On November 
8, 1620, the liberties of Bohemia were lost in the battle 
of the White Mountain, and only restored in part by 
the edict of Toleration in 1781. For over a hundred 
and fifty years the Bible could have been read only at 
the risk of life. Real religious liberty was assured by 
the triumph of the Allies in 1918, and by the constitu- 
tion of Czechoslovakia, as well as by the character of 
President T. G. Masaryk, who is of evangelical 
aflSliation. 

Count Valerian Krasinski in 1838 dedicated his work 
on the Polish Reformation, *'To the Protestants of 
the British Empire and of the United States, by a 
Polish Protestant." For fifty years it made rapid 
advances, and a glance at a map of that time, showing 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 37 

swarms of evangelical churches in Poland would astonish 
anyone ignorant of that history. An account of the 
evangelical schools, printing presses, and Bibles of 
that period would deepen the impression. In the next 
fifty years there was a rapid decline. Finally Poland 
itself, ''after a career of degeneracy almost unexampled 
in the history of the world," disappeared from the 
map. Again we quote Dr. Dalton, when in 1884 he 
addressed the Presbyterian Council at Belfast: 

"'It is my deepest conviction, as the result of long 
years of study, that Poland has been strangled by the 
Romish Church. Had that noble people remained 
true to the leading of John Laski, then to the present 
day had those melancholy words, 'Finis Poloniae,^ 
remained unspoken. If anyone wishes to understand 
what the audacious man of Rome, with his bodyguard 
of Jesuits, can make out of a noble country, let him 
study the history of Poland to the present day, the 
history of a people that, as few others, offered in its 
worldly circumstances so many favorable points to a 
Presbyterian development." 



Chapter II 

COLPORTAGE 

The form of evangelical effort known as colportage 
has for a long time, and on a larger scale than any- 
other, been employed throughout the most of Slavdom, 
and among multitudes in the United States. A col- 
porteur may not always be, as the French word sig- 
nifies, "one who carries" something "on his neck," yet 
as a servant of Bible or tract societies he is a sort of 
book agent, needing all the courage, tact, energy, and 
perseverance that may be associated with that calling. 
Some western cattlemen have amusingly confounded 
the word with "cowpuncher." When such work began 
in Japan, the natives called the colporteur "The-Holy- 
Book-to-sell-go-about-man." Another beautifully ex- 
pressive term is "Bible messenger." 

The colporteur is an itinerant, generally a lay 
missionary. His main function is to distribute books, 
not specially to hold prayer meetings, start new 
Sunday schools, begin or organize new missions, or to 
preach, though on occasion, if qualified, he may do all 
these things. But if books are not circulated, Bible 
societies must go out of business. 

The colporteur promotes the reading of the Word. 
A good statement of the relative importance of the 
work is in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "The 
Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the 
preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing 
and converting sinners, and of building them up in 
holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation." 
Preachers and missionaries often find colporteurs indis- 
pensable. Volumes might not suffice to tell of the mis- 

38 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 39 

sions that have originated from the reading of Bibles, 
by individuals or groups, in widely diflFerent parts of 
the world. It would be unjust to demand either from 
colporteurs or preachers that they produce some 
''permanent," showy results in some given time, 
according to a critic's caprice. We cannot dismiss 
Christ's rule for his Kingdom, ''first the blade, then 
the ear, then the full grain in the ear." The Egyptian 
boatman casts his grain, his "bread" into the fertile 
flood of the Nile, "upon the waters," but he does not 
expect to find it till after "many days." Luther's 
conversion is usually traced to his reading of the Bible, 
which he first saw in Latin about the year 1504, when 
he was twenty years old; while his Reformation dates 
from 1517, years after. 

Bible women have accomplished things in Christian 
work that could not be done by an angel from heaven; 
but it is best that our colporteurs should be men. They 
may be required to carry from fifty to seventy pounds 
of books, under a blazing sky, or through winter's 
mud and snows and rains. They may walk through 
lonely forests, or through dangerous city neighbor- 
hoods at night. They are "in journeyings often, in 
perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by" their 
own "countrymen, in perils by the" heathen, "in 
perils in the city, in perils in the w^ilderness, in perils 
in the sea, in perils among false brethren." Students 
on vacations may take up this work, men with years 
of education, or new converts so illiterate that they 
can barely scrawl their reports. Sometimes the 
uneducated men make the best salesmen. It would be 
dijfficult suddenly to abandon the support of an ordained 
man, a lady missionary, a mission station. But a 
colporteur may be supported in one region for a month, 
transferred to another for three months or a year, on 
short notice, to renew work whenever new occasions 



40 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

call for it. "Uncle John Vassar," colporteur of the 
American Tract Society, said that he was not a shep- 
herd, but a shepherd's dog, to bring the sheep to the 
shepherd. Colporteurs are scouts of the Church. We 
can say to a colporteur what Moses said to his friend : 
"Thou may est be to us instead of eyes." 

Colportage is the most flexible, most economical, of 
all Christian work, and it should be vigorously 
increased at home and abroad. Colportage, moreover, 
is a continuous survey, cheaper, more practical, and 
more evangelistic than any other kind of survey. 
Colporteurs often are required to pause, for some 
purely humanitarian errand, in behalf of the sick, the 
unemployed, the unfortunate, or those who may need 
an interpreter. 

The writer was superintendent of colportage for the 
Young Men's Bible Society of Allegheny County at 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1900 and part of 1901. 
This was the first work of the sort this venerable 
organization had undertaken among foreigners. Two 
of the lessons from that experience prove the great 
usefulness of colportage: 

First, as never before, the Slav colporteurs revealed 
in that important center of evangelical churches the 
accessibility of the Slavs. One day a colporteur re- 
ported that Schoenville, near the city, would be a 
good place for a mission. The writer called the atten- 
tion of Dr. W. L. McEwan, his former fellow student, 
to these facts. Dr. McEwan warmly welcomed the 
idea, began a correspondence, learned the name and 
recommendations of Rev. V. Losa, then a pastor of a 
Bohemian Presbyterian Church at Clarkson, Nebraska, 
and did not rest until the latter was called to begin 
his mission at Schoenville. Developments made 
necessary a joint committee of Pittsburgh and Alle- 
gheny Presbyteries and, later, the union of these two 




WILLIAM L. McEWAN, D.D., LL.D. 



^1 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 41 

presbyteries, mainly for the more effective prosecution 
of this work among foreigners. These brethren had 
sturdy minds, and strong local attachments, old and 
loved traditions, so that it cost a sacrifice of sentiment 
and convenience to make such changes, all of which 
began with these colporteurs. Dr. McEwan was an 
unwearied advocate and leader in the cause, year 
after year, and the results make up an important part 
of the achievements of his ministerial career. In 1902 
the joint committee of these two presbyteries began 
colportage. No sales among Slavs had been reported 
from any part of the United States that were greater 
than those of the Bible Society at Pittsburgh. But 
the first year's sales among Slavs by the Presbyterian 
colporteurs were double those of the local Bible Society 
for a corresponding period. 

If colportage is a power for good in the region of 
Pittsburgh, why not for other regions in this country? 
With this conviction the writer corresponded with the 
late Dr. J. A. Worden, with the result that the Pres- 
byterian Board of Publication in the summer of 1902 
took up the work, the writer assisting in securing and 
directing their first colporteur among Slavs, a Bohemian, 
afterwards ordained as a minister. Rev. Frank Uherka. 
This work was done in Lehigh Presbytery, beginning 
at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Some years ago the 
estimate was made that the Presbyterian colportage of 
the country, including this Board and Pittsburgh 
Presbytery, exceeded that of the other denominations 
combined. Boasting is excluded; for no denomination 
has done all that it should have done for this work. 

Another result was achieved by Slav colporteurs of 
the Bible Society in Pittsburgh; they started a move- 
ment among tianslators across the sea. Bible trans- 
lators have been called "the pioneers of civilization; 
but the pioneers of pioneers are the colporteurs," and 



42 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

here is an instance. The colporteurs reported that 
Lithuanians would not accept the Bibles that were 
offered %o them, as they were in an alphabet that they 
did not use. Inquiry showed that for many years in 
Russia there had been no permission to publish any 
books in the Lithuanian language. Consequently the 
Lithuanians were more destitute of Scriptures than the 
Dakota Indians, who have the Bible in their own 
tongue. The writer had a correspondence with the 
British and Foreign Bible Society on this subject, 
especially after he became pastor in 190£ at Shenan- 
doah, Pennsylvania, which was a Lithuanian strong- 
hold. Questions arose as to the proper style for modern 
Lithuanian. Copies of Lithuanian newspapers, pub- 
lished in America, in the Roman type used by the mass 
of Lithuanians to-day, were obtained and sent to 
London to the "B. F. B. S." And here the writer may 
be allowed to pay an American's tribute to the officials 
of that noble Bible Society, for the courtesy of their 
correspondence, and the patience and perseverance 
with which they met the problems of a new Bible 
version. The chief correspondent on such questions 
was the late Rev. John Sharp, of the Church of Eng- 
land, the editorial superintendent. His successor is 
Dr. R. Kilgour, a Presbyterian, formerly a missionary 
in India. At last Russia removed the ban from the 
publication of Lithuanian Bibles. Colporteurs of the 
Presbyterian Board of Publication have sold them in 
America, and thousands of copies have been sold in 
Europe. 

At this point some explanations may naturally be 
made as to Lithuania. Disregarding what some lexi- 
cographers or philologists may say as to the relation 
between the Lithuanian and the Slavic group of lan- 
guages, the experience of colporteurs is that while Slavs 
can communicate more or less readily with other Slavs, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 43 

they can scarcely understand one word of Lithuanian. 
Lithuania was once part of Poland, and many Lithu- 
anians speak Polish, and thus communicate with Slav 
colporteurs. It pleases them that they may claim a 
high antiquity for their language, since scholars mark 
the resemblance between the Lithuanian and the 
venerable Sanskrit of India. But a professor in Oxford, 
England, objects to the claim that Lithuanian is "the 
oldest language in Europe," preferring to class it as a 
"well-preserved language" whose literary monuments 
are hardly more ancient than the Reformation era. 
In a survey of Slavdom, waiving questions of linguistic 
relationship, the practical fact is before us that Lithu- 
ania always did and must have dealings with the Slav 
group, especially Poles and Russians; that the Great 
War leaves it recognized as a separate nationality; 
that it, too, proclaims religious freedom; and that it 
has interesting Lithuanian Reformed Churches, having 
knowledge and fellowship with Polish Reformed 
churches and adherents who are leaders in Lithuanian 
national affairs. In one of the Lithuanian publications 
we may see a facsimile letter addressed by John Calvin 
to their synod. The Reformers are their spiritual 
ancestry. American Presbyterians should establish 
regular communications with brethren of our own 
branch of the Church of Christ, kindred who too long 
have been obscure to us, who need a helping hand, and 
who may have inspiring successes to comfort them for 
centuries of hindrances. 

Americans would learn many lessons, if they could see 
the colporteur at his work. One of these men found a 
group of men at cards, perhaps drinking, and was sa- 
luted with "Oh ! Go away ! We do not want your books !" 
. "Ah!" he answered, "that is not fair! You should 
give me a hearing ! This book says, *Husbands,love your 
wives, as Christ loved the Church.' Is that a bad book?" 



44 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

**0h, well, maybe it is not such a bad book!" 

'*And this book says" — and as soon as possible, the 
colporteur read the Book, and let it speak for itself. 
If any asked about the Virgin Mary, he turned to a 
passage where she is mentioned. If any inquired 
whether the Book contains any prayers, he read,"Create 
in me a clean heart, O God." Sometimes colporteurs 
are asked if the Book tells anything about the sufiferings 
of Christ, and one colporteur said that he sold many 
a New Testament after reading Matt., ch. 27, the 
account of the crucifixion. Tears have streamed down 
the faces of those who hear in their language this story 
from the gospel. 

Some of the anecdotes published by Dr. George W. 
Montgomery in a booklet for Pittsburgh Presbytery are 
worth repeating: 

"Shortly after the work among the Slavonic people 
was begun in Schoenville, in the year 1900, a Bohemian 
man from Slavonia, Joseph Kujinek, was induced to 
attend the meetings. The place where our meetings 
were held was a small, unattractive rented room. 
Joseph had been a bad character in the Old Country, 
was often drunk, and his wife suffered greatly at 
his hands. As soon as he entered our mission he became 
very much interested in what he heard and hardly 
three weeks elapsed before he was soundly converted. 
He asked to be received into membership in the 
mission. We were very careful about receiving 
members into the mission, preferring to exercise a 
watch over them, ofttimes for weeks, that we might 
make no mistake. But we were obliged to make an 
exception in the case of this man. His testimony was 
so earnest and so touching that we admitted him at 
once to full communion. He stayed with the mission 
six months and was a most exemplary member. 

"After six months he returned to his European home 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 45 

where he remained. Letters reached us of how tender 
his meeting with his wife was. She went to the station 
to meet a drunkard, as she supposed, from whom she 
expected to suffer more than before, because she had 
heard that he had joined the "'Devil's Church" in 
America. To her great surprise, however, he not only 
did not go to the saloon, but when he reached their 
home he opened a big book (Bible), read a chapter 
from it, and knelt down and thanked God for a safe 
return to his home. He read from his Bible every day 
and was a very tender husband, a thing to which his 
wife was not used. His wife was so moved after three 
or four days that she begged him with tears in her eyes 
to take her over to the same church to which he 
belonged. The following Sunday they both made a 
journey of three hours to the nearest Protestant 
Church where they became members. 

"Since that time they have lived a happy life in their 
home though bitterly persecuted for their faith. When 
Joseph learned that there were Protestants scattered 
about in the neighborhood, he began to visit them and 
within half a year he had found about sixty Protestant 
families. He was eager for meetings, but there was no 
building anywhere in the neighborhood which could be 
rented for Protestant use. He therefore bought a little 
house, made one room out of two, and began to gather 
the Protestants every Sunday. Within two years this 
work of one convert grew into a church. 

"Mr. Medvid, a Ruthenian convert, who a few years 
ago did not know of the existence of the Holy Book, 
was converted in Schoenville. Right after his conver- 
sion he lost his job because he would not bribe his 
bosses any more, he would not go to saloons, and he 
would not swear. When he applied for work the boss 
sent him to the church to pray. It was impossible for 
him to get work in Schoenville. He therefore moved to 



46 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Coraopolis where he got work in an oil refinery. Almost 
all the workmen there happened to be Protestants and 
very good men. Before he got this job, however, he 
walked across the country from Coraopolis to Moon 
Run. When he was returning it was dark. Three men 
held him up and demanded money. One of them was a 
Negro who pointed a revolver in his face, threatening 
to kill him. This is the characteristic reply Mr. Medvid 
made to his threat: 'Money I have none, but as to 
your killing me I want to say that I am not afraid. 
My soul cannot be killed. It belongs to God.' Such 
an unusual answer moved the Negro and he said: T 
had a good Christian mother who taught me to believe 
in God and obey him, but I went the wrong way. I 
will not harm you. Here is your watch; go your way; 
you are safe'." 

An illustration of the power of the printed page in 
shaping lives will be found in the following: 

'Tn some unknown way a copy of the Krestanshe 
Listy, a paper that is published in Pittsburgh in the 
Bohemian language and edited by Dr. Losa, super- 
intendent of the presbytery's foreign work, fell into 
the hands of a Bohemian woman at Raccoon, Pennsyl- 
vania. She, together with her husband and quite a 
colony of Bohemians, had been living a life of sin and 
great indifference to religious matters for a number of 
years. When this paper came into her hands she was 
so deeply impressed with what she read that she came 
twenty-eight miles to the city of Pittsburgh to seek 
Dr. Losa and beg him to teach her more about the way 
to Godo Her child of seven or eight years accompanied 
her on this journey. More than two hours of time was 
spent in the office where she was directed to look to 
*the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the 
world.' She went away from the office with her face 
aglow with the new joy that had come to her by faith 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 47 

in Jesus Christ. She returned to her home and in a 
short time that entire community became quiet, 
peace-loving, and orderly." 

A brief account taken from a publication kindly 
furnished by the superintendent, J. M. Somerndike, of 
the work undertaken among Slavs by our Presbyterian 
Board of Publication may here be sufl&cient: 

"The efforts of the Board in behalf of foreign immi- 
grants may rightly be termed ''evangelizing" because 
they are concerned solely with the giving of the evangel 
or glad tidings to the host of foreigners in America. 
The Board's work is to sow the seed of the Kingdom, 
preparing the field for cultivation and harvest. Its 
efforts are confined to the preparation of evangelical 
literature in the languages of immigrant peoples and 
the distribution of such literature, together with the 
Scriptures, through the work of colporteurs. These 
colporteurs, who are missionaries in the truest sense, 
canvass foreign colonies and settlements, especially 
in the large cities, doing personal work besides gathering 
information which frequently prepares the way for the 
establishment of permanent mission stations. 

"Apart from the preached Word, the most effective 
means of spreading the gospel, especially among the 
immigrants, is through the printed page. Who can 
measure the far-reaching effect of the silent yet forceful 
messenger of God's truth in the form of a brief tract or 
leaflet placed in the hands of one who may be seeking 
the light.? 

"While the Church continues to make liberal use of 
literature in introducing the gospel into heathen lands, 
it has been neglected in America, where it is even more 
urgently needed. The influx of millions of immigrants 
from southern Europe, speaking strange tongues, found 
us unprepared. With a very inadequate supply of 
evangelical literature in foreign languages, and with 



48 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

only a few Protestant ministers who could speak the 
languages of these newcomers, the Church found itself 
well-nigh helpless to convey the message of the gospel 
to any large numbers. 

*'The Missionary Department of the Presbyterian 
Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, with 
the assistance of other agencies, began to develop for 
this new immigration a series of tracts and booklets in 
the same manner as it met the immigrant problem of a 
generation ago, when the majority of those who came 
to our shores were from the countries of northern 
Europe. The Board also saw the necessity of reviving 
the work of the colporteur, who in former days had 
rendered such effective service in reaching the Swedes, 
Norwegians, French, and others who came to America 
in the earlier immigration. 

"A class of missionaries concerning whom we hear 
and read but little, consists of the humble colporteurs, 
or Bible men, who are taking the gospel to the people 
of many tongues in the language of their native lands. 
The colportage system of evangelization has been tried 
and tested for centuries." 

An account of the Slav periodicals published by 
the Presbyterian Board is given in the supplement to 
this book. 

In the Russian Empire for a number of years, col- 
porteurs of the B. F. B. S. had special privileges from 
the Russian Department of Railways in the granting of 
free passes and for the free carriage of goods, thus 
saving thousands of pounds for the Society. Steam- 
ship companies on the great Siberian rivers were like- 
wise generous. In one report from Siberia, mention is 
made of an agent's journey of fifteen hundred miles, 
first class and free of charge; and that the total weight 
of Scriptures carried to and from the headquarters of 
that agency in that year was seventy-six tons. When 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 49 

the railways were congested during the War, these 
privileges were withdrawn. The colporteurs accord- 
ingly did not sell so much on trains, but devoted them- 
selves to the towns, especially those that have rail- 
way junctions. 

In the summer, every year, one of the colporteurs 
journeyed from Petrograd to the White Sea. Among 
other places, he would go to the island of the famous 
Solovetsky Monastery, visited by thousands of pilgrims. 
He always received a welcome there, sometimes, too, 
much assistance in his colportage work, as the monks 
take supplies for the pilgrims. At the Verkolsky 
Monastery he once met the famous Father John of 
Kronstadt, who was making a visit. He had tea and 
dinner with him. 

"You have for a long time been serving in the Society, 
my friend," said Father John. "It is a good service — 
one might call it apostolic." 

"Yes," said he, "I am now in my thirteenth year of 
service." 

When Father John's steamer was leaving, the 
colporteur asked if the former would give him passage 
with him back to Archangel; Father John at once con- 
sented, and on the voyage spoke to him further about 
his work as a colporteur, rejoicing at his great success. 
When questioned about his health the colporteur 
replied that now, thank God, he was well, but that 
eighteen months before he had undergone a serious 
operation. 

"It is evident," said Father John, "that the Lord 
still had need of you, as he has brought you back to 
health and strength." '4 

On that journey of six thousand miles, the colpor- 
teur circulated nearly three thousand copies of Scripture. 

The same colporteur earlier in this tour arrived at 
Archangel and found difficulty in obtaining a place 



50 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

to store his stock of Scriptures, of which he had about 
a thousand rubles' worth. He went to the archpriest, 
and begged him to allow him to keep the books in the 
cathedral building; his request was granted, thus saving 
the Society all expense for storage. On another tour 
he was in a barracks where three hundred workers 
were quartered. His stock was rapidly exhausted, and 
one man who took several copies was besieged by the 
others: "Ivan Petrovitch! For Christ's sake, give me 
one little book, and I shall always pray for you!" 

A bookseller in Archangel remarked to him that in 
the north he supposed sales of Scripture would be 
small. "On the contrary," said the colporteur, "about 
a hundred rubles [then ten pounds sterling] a week." 
The bookseller wondered, for he himseK did not sell as 
many of such books in a year, and asked how the 
colporteur managed it. 

"I go everywhere," was the reply, "and wherever 
there are doors open, there I offer the Scriptures. 
Here, for instance, in your own street, I have sold 
twenty-one copies in a drapery establishment and 
twelve in a grocer's shop. I go to the people, I 
bring the books under their noses, I tell them the 
price. I show them that it is the gospel, and urge 
them to buy — that is all." The report adds: "That 
is all; but there lies in that just the very secret 
of being a colporteur." 

A suggestive paragraph in a B. P. B. S. report tells 
how the men are selected and trained. A colporteur 
is always admitted on probation for a period of from 
six to nine months. He has to show what is in him in 
the way of endurance, physical and moral; the col- 
porteur's life will try a man quite sufficiently in this 
respect. He must show whether he has the gift of 
making himself and his vocation acceptable to people 
of different classes; he must show that he can exercise 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 51 

practical wisdom in his going to and fro among the 
people; he must show that he has some idea of the 
higher nature of his calling as a bearer of the Word 
of God: 

"Probationers often fail to attain our standard for 
admission to the full rank of colporteur. We hesitate 
sometimes in the case of a man who proves himself to 
have the salesman's gift but to be apparently devoid of 
any other qualification associated with the name colpor- 
teur. Yet we have seen such a man — at first a mere 
salesman, though a good one — begin in the course of 
time to be interested in Bible circulation as such, and 
at last become proud of his calling as a colporteur and 
devoted to it. On the other hand, we have sometimes 
to do with good and earnest Christian men whose 
period of probation has shown them to have no aptitude 
for colportage." Elsewhere in these reports a col- 
porteur whose reports were lengthy was advised to 
"write less and sell more." 

Speaking of objectors, a colporteur remarked that 
the least dangerous unbelievers are those who discuss 
Noah's ark, Balaam's ass, and Jonah's whale. Fre- 
quently we find testimonies to the Word of God from 
surprising sources. On a train in Siberia one passenger 
exclaimed: "Brothers, those of you who do not possess 
a copy of this book, or have it in your homes, are not 
worthy of the name of orthodox Christian. In this 
book you will find knowledge, grace, and strength to 
fit you for the battle of life." Several fellow passengers 
then bought Testaments. 

On another occasion a soldier stimulated sales in a 
train by his exhortation: "Comrades, this book is for 
all the orthodox, and is the Book of books. Come, all 
who care for religion, and buy a copy!" 

A colporteur on another train offered books to a 
group of Kirghiz Tatars, who are Moslems. One of 



52 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

them could read Russian characters, and taking a 
copy of the four Gospels, he said: "I will buy the book. 
I know its contents, and they are good." He advised a 
Russian peasant sitting opposite to buy a book that 
he was examining, saying, "In this book you will find 
capital rules for daily life." The peasant did so, sur- 
prised that a Kirghiz should commend the Scriptures 
to him. 

In a Cossack village the priest said to his congrega- 
tion: "Brethren, we have among us to-day a man sent 
our way with copies of the Scriptures, a colporteur. I 
hope that in each house a copy of the Word of God 
may be found. We all have need of this Book." 

Another Siberian incident encouraged a colporteur. 
A peasant thanked him for his persuasion to take a 
New Testament the year before, saying that he was 
fleeing from sin and believed in Christ. He had had a 
discussion with a friend, Simon, about the passage in 
Heb., ch. 11: "Women received their dead by a 
resurrection: and others . . . that they might ob- 
tain a better resurrection." Simon supposed that 
there must be two resurrections, but asked his friend 
to explain it. 

"I, how can I explain it to thee?'^ was the reply. 
"I'm no pope [priest], but I'll give thee my idea on the 
verses. For example, thou and I are sad drunkards, 
Simon, thieves, swindlers, and revelers; our wives 
suffer all kinds of unpleasantness. They know no 
rest, and are always anxious for our return, on which, 
when we are drunk, we beat them unmercifully. Now 
all of a sudden, you, Simon, and I, Achim, start coming 
home sober to our wives, and begin to converse with 
them about faith and God and the Scriptures, tell 
them that we are now reformed men, take no part in 
revels or rogueries, but become honest men, and never 
touch vodka, or torment our wives. Is not that also, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 53 

Simon, a case of returning to our wives, having obtained 
a resurrection and shaken off sin?" *'I do not know," 
Simon answered, "but I think thou art talking sense, 
and perhaps there are two resurrections." 

''Six months have passed since then," said Achim 
to the colporteur, "but drink has never passed his lips; 
and this, mind you, is all the result of your selling me 
that copy of the New Testament." 

The region east of Lake Baikal is the most difficult 
section of Siberia, with a sparse and migratory popula- 
tion. Some years ago an order was signed by the 
commander in chief of the Kazan Military Circuit: 

1. Prikaz (i. e., Order) No. 509, December 25, 1912. 

Hereby is issued an order, to be carried out to the 
very letter, without any deviation whatever, in all 
companies and detachments of the regiments, at morn- 
ing prayers to read daily one chapter in succession of 
the Gospels, in a clear, loud voice, and intelligible 
manner. 

The officers of the companies and detachments must 
select the men who are to read the Gospels, as well as 
see that this order is f ulffiled to the letter, and duly 
carried out. 

For information: This order was issued for the Kazan 
Military Circuit on December 7, 1912, under No. 359. 

The report adds that if similar orders were every- 
where in force, it would pave the way for colporteurs to 
gain access to Russian barracks in the Far East. 

Just before the Holy Synod of the Russian Church 
passed out of existence, it issued a permit for a reprint 
of the 1907 edition of the Russian Bible, without the 
Apocryphal books; and the Synodal Press, before it 
was declared the property of the State, had the sheets 
ready for delivery at the end of the year. This edition 
of twenty-five thousand Bibles came at a time when 
the stock of Bibles in various languages was exhausted 



54 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

in Russia, and when, through the breakdown in trans- 
portation, no more could be had. When the railways 
reopened for a while the B. F. B. S. books were accepted 
free of charge, as under the old regime. 

Some anecdotes are given concerning colportage 
among Ruthenians, or as we may now designate them, 
Ukrainians. One very successful worker at Breslau 
said that of all the Slav nationalities passing through 
that center, these were the most approachable, and 
most receptive of gospel teaching. Thousands of 
books sold there find their way to the villages of 
Austria, and orders sometimes come to this Breslau 
colporteur from Galicia. So, in the barracks at Prague, 
a colporteur noted the avidity of Ruthenian soldiers to 
possess the Scriptures. Poverty was a hindrance in 
Galicia. In one village a group of men was formed to 
purchase a Bible as common property; and it was 
arranged that they should meet alternately in one 
another's houses for the purpose of Bible study. Often 
the colporteur was asked to tell stories from the Bible, 
and he always did so. One little Ruthenian maid 
bought a Gospel, and later the colporteur found her 
reading aloud to a crowd of villagers. "Here is the 
man from whom I bought it," she exclaimed, and in a 
few minutes he had sold ten more Gospels, a Bible, 
and several New Testaments. In the Bukowina a 
saddler informed a colporteur that there were only 
two complete Bibles, one of which was in the hands of 
the Pope of Rome and the other belonged to the 
archbishop of Lemberg! 

In the Bukowina, a colporteur working among Poles 
and Ruthenians sold a Bible to a Roman Catholic 
laborer, who said, "I am in perpetual wonder about 
this book, for there is no book in all the world so suited 
to all conditions in life, none so suitable for every rank 
and class." 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 55 

At a railway station in Russia a Polish soldier 
recognized and hailed a colporteur who was offering 
Scriptures to the men who were looking out of the car 
windows. He had bought a Bible on that very spot, 
on his way to the Far East, read it constantly, and 
found in it the way of everlasting life. Then he turned 
to his comrades and said, "Here, brothers, is the man 
who sold me the Bible, and counseled me to read it 
every day." As a consequence, the colporteur there 
and then sold ten more Polish Bibles. 

A Polish farmer was found, a man of saintly char- 
acter and life, who had bought a Bible nine years 
before the colporteur's interview with him. A workman 
bought a Polish Wujek Bible and went from house to 
house reading it. This prepared the way, years after- 
ward, for the colporteur who sold copies in that village. 
In a difficult region, a Polish family was visited that 
needed a new Bible, since they had been reading their 
copy for fifteen years. Another family near Cracow 
had treasured their copy for twenty-five years, resisting 
the priest in his efforts to obtain it. In Russian Poland 
a family that had been converted by reading the Bible 
had much trouble with their priest, who afterwards 
became friendly and bought a Bible for himself, a rare 
case. One enthusiastic laborer, a Pole, in East Prussia, 
treasuring his Bible, declared that when he returned to 
Austria he would tell his friends of the happiness he had 
found through believing in Jesus Christ. 

A curious story was reported from Germany. A 
young man who bought a Polish Bible was jeered at 
by his companions and took the Bible back to the 
colporteur, who entreated in vain that he should keep 
it. He finally left it on the fence by the roadside. 
Some time afterwards this worker was accosted by a 
woman who wanted to see his books. She had found 
the Bible on the fence, took it home, and as it was in 



56 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

her language, she would not be parted from it. In the 
region of Moscow, a man made a special journey to 
meet a colporteur and get a Polish Bible, as he had 
seen one in the hands of a fellow villager. 

Yet with painful monotony yearly instances are 
given of opposition, intense, organized, from the 
Polish Catholic priesthood, and in all parts of Poland, 
Russian, Austrian, or German. A colporteur mentioned 
a Pole who six years before had bought a Polish Wujek 
Bible from one of the colporteurs in eastern Germany. 
He discovered that he was a great sinner, but that he 
could be saved, not by works but by faith. A priest 
visited him, took the book from him, and kept it for 
some time. The Pole went to law and obtained a judg- 
ment against the priest, who had to return the Bible. 
The priest finally informed the Pole that he had been 
shut out of the Catholic Church and declared a heretic. 

In a village not far from the town of Posen a girl 
was sent to a colporteur with a Testament that her 
mother had bought, asking him to refund the money. 
The girl said that her mother had ordered her to throw 
the book into the fire, because it distinctly stated that 
Peter had denied our Lord. The news went like wild- 
fire through the village that he was circulating books 
slandering St. Peter. He complained that he was 
hunted like a wild beast. 

The priests visit all families where the colporteur 
has been, and burn all the books he has sold. They 
fulminate against him from the pulpit, warn school 
children of his coming, publish descriptions of him in 
the press, so that these workers are sometimes in 
danger of their lives. Even the Wujek, a Catholic 
version in Polish, is seized and burned. One Bible was 
taken from a Pole in Galicia to be sent to Rome ''for 
the pope's inspection." He was assured that it might 
be some years before the pope would send it back. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 57 

In Posen the people regard the Bible as antagonizing 
not only the Catholic Church but also the Polish nation. 
They say, "These are Protestant books, which are 
meant to steal our religion, after a law has been made 
to steal our land." The people are in fear of the priests, 
lest they refuse them the Communion and absolution. 
On a steamer going from Warsaw to Plotsk, a man 
asked a colporteur to come with him to a quiet part of 
the vessel and give him a Bible "inconspicuously." 
Often men and women who buy a Gospel hide it under 
a pillow, for fear the priest might burn it. In Posen 
the colporteur is often regarded as an emissary of 
Prussia, and is hooted through the streets by the 
children, or pelted with stones and heavy missiles. 
Yet encouraging hopes are expressed in one of these 
reports that the Poles, who are a religious people, will 
some day be transformed, when they become a Bible- 
reading people. Some Poles declared to a colporteur 
that they had lost faith in their priests. 

The same opposition from a Romish priesthood is 
seen among Slovenes and Croatians. The question 
naturally arises as to whether this is because the Bible 
if known would end their domination. We read of a 
woodman who bought a Slovenian Testament with 
eagerness. After finishing work at one place, a col- 
porteur, himself a Slovene, found a man following him 
through the forest. He had had a copy of the Scriptures 
which the priest had taken from him. For more than 
an hour the colporteur talked with him in the forest, 
and after that Bible class, the Slovene returned, 
rejoicing in his new copy of the Word. Another 
Slovene in South Styria asked him whether his books 
contained anything about the Virgin Mary. It was a 
lucky thing that he satisfied him, as it was the man's 
intention otherwise to throw him into a pond. In one 
place a priest preached against the B. F. B. S., saying 



58 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

that it was the ruin of the Holy Cathohc Church. 
''This Society offers us its books, but they are poison- 
ous. Many have fallen from the faith through this very 
Society, whose books teach a different faith than ours." 

The B. F. B. S. report for 1908 gives an account of 
the restrictions and delays and some instances of perse- 
cution in colportage work. The situation was intoler- 
able. In some provinces, regions visited by throngs 
of American tourists, in Upper Austria, the Tyrol, 
Vorarlberg, and Salzburg, licenses were withheld from 
the colporteurs. It was a crime to sell a Bible in Vienna ! 
Yet Rosegger, Austria's greatest novelist, said: 'T can 
never weary, all my life long, of pointing to the gospel. 
In Austria, where this Book lies fallow, we little dream 
what lies therein, how it encourages, elevates, and 
inspires suffering, wrestling, hopeless men. After the 
day's labor we lie down in our beds, full of care. That 
which we have sought and wished we have seldom 
attained, and the morrow sees once more the beginning 
of the worry and struggle of existence. How would it 
be, were we to take every evening that immortal book 
which is called the New Testament, and read a chapter 
or two aloud in our family circles and speak about what 
we have read.^ In this way we should disperse many a 
dark cloud. We should conquer our lot, instead of 
being conquered by it." 

Croatia is rated as a difficult field. Yet a Turk 
bought a Croatian Bible from a colporteur. A gendarme 
bought a Croatian Testament. A keeper of a light- 
house ordered a Croatian Bible after the colporteur 
explained to him that the Bible was a great Light. 
Another was sold to a burgomaster who borrowed the 
money for it from a policeman. A young lieutenant 
said: "You sold a New Testament to one of my men. 
I have been reading it with great pleasure." Later 
on he visited the colporteur and bought a Croatian 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 59 

Bible. A high government official in one of the courts 
to whom he had brought a Bible held it aloft and said 
to his friends: ''Gentlemen, this is the most important 
book in the world. It should have its place in every 
house and be read in every family." 

By contrast the colporteur's work is easier in Serbia 
and Bulgaria. A report says: "In Serbia we enjoy 
perfect freedom to carry on our work. The priests of 
the Serbian Greek Church are, as a rule, friendly. One 
priest bought over two hundred New Testaments for 
the members of his community." Priests tell the 
colporteur of the altered lives of those of their flock 
who study the Scriptures; peasants speak of the young 
men of their villages ceasing to follow ungodly ways 
since the Bible has been introduced among them. ''As a 
rule, the Serbian loves the Scriptures. In this, he 
resembles his Russian cousin." Some Serbians said 
to the Bible man, "We do not want novels, but some- 
thing about Jesus Christ." Another Serb said: "I 
would not resell my Bible for ten times its price. The 
money which it costs is as nothing to the treasure it 
contains." This last incident occurred in the wilds of 
southern Croatia. On a festival of the Greek Orthodox 
Church some Serbian young men bought Scriptures for 
their partners in a dance. 

The B. F. B. S. in Bulgaria has the northern half of 
the kingdom as its field, while the American Bible 
Society works in the southern part. Almost every 
year, the B. F. B. S. reports work done through the 
American Methodist Episcopal Mission which had its 
headquarters at Rustchuk. 

An officer in Rustchuk said to his men, "Buy this, 
read it attentively, and you will find it good both for 
your bodies and your souls." 

"But sir," said a soldier, "some say it is a Protestant 
book." 



60 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

"Yes, it is a Protestant book, because it always 
protests against sin and wickedness." 

One aged priest took a New Testament from the 
hands of the colporteur and held it forth to the assem- 
bled people, saying, '*This is the holy gospel, the record 
of the words of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ/' 
Then turning to the colporteur he said, ''God bless 
you abundantly, my son, that your work may prosper 
to the salvation of our beloved nation." 

A chorister said to a colporteur, "Although I have 
been singing for years in the Orthodox Church, I found 
nothing to feed my soul upon, such as I find now in 
the New Testament." 

A priest at the Rustchuk railway station said to a 
Bible man, "You have a blessed lot in being privileged 
to distribute this Word of Life." Then turning to the 
bystanders he said, "Every household which does not 
possess this Book, and read it every day, is not worthy 
to be called a Christian household." 

Without giving further instances, we may quote 
once more: "Everywhere we are met by kind advice 
and encouragement from those in authority who wish 
to strengthen the interest of the Bulgarian people in 
the New Testament." 

The classic poem in English that portrays the soul 
of colportage is Whittier's "The Vaudois Teacher." 
It is well adapted for missionary programs. 

"O lady fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and 

rare — 
The richest web of the Indian loom, which beauty's 

queen might wear; 
And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with 

whose radiant light they vie; 
I have brought them with me a weary way — will my 

gentle lady buy?" 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 61 

And the lady smiled on the worn old man through the 

dark and clustering curls 
Which veiled her brow as she bent to view his silks and 

glittering pearls; 
And she placed their price in the old man's hand, and 

lightly turned away, 
But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call — ''My 

gentle lady, stay!" 

"O lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer luster 

jBings 
Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown on 

the lofty brow of kings — 
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue 

shall not decay. 
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee and a blessing 

on thy way!" 

The lady glanced at the mirroring steel where her form 

of grace was seen. 
Where her eye shone clear, and her dark locks waved 

their clasping pearls between; 
"Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth, thou traveler 

gray and old. 
And name the price of thy precious gem, and my page 

shall count thy gold." 

The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow, as a small 

and meager book, 
Unchased with gold or gem of cost, from his folding 

robe he took! 
"Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price, may it prove as 
• such to thee ! 

Nay — keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word of 
God is free!" 



62 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

The hoary traveler went his way, but the gift he left 

behind 
Hath had its pure and perfect work on that high-born 

maiden's mind, 
And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the 

lowliness of truth, 
And given her human heart to God in its beautiful hour 

of youth! 

And she hath left the gray old halls, where an evil 

faith had power. 
The courtly knights of her father's train, and the 

maidens of her bower; 
And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales by lordly feet 

untrod. 
Where the poor and needy of earth are rich in the 

perfect love of God ! 

A history of colportage could be made a compre- 
hensive affair. We might go back to apostolic days, 
and refer to the earliest Christian itinerants. Paul 
asked Timothy to bring with him the "books, especially 
the parchments." Dr. C. R. Gregory says that it 
would be diflficult to discuss intelligently the question 
of the spread and general acceptance of the books of 
the New Testament among the Christians of the 
various lands and provinces, without referring to the 
possibilities of travel then and there. He says that a 
Roman in Greece or Asia Minor or Egypt would have 
been able to travel as well as most of the Europeans 
who lived before 1837. At that time many people 
traveled pretty much all over the world that was then 
known, which was the Roman Empire. The freight 
ships of the Mediterranean were not small, and they 
carried large cargoes of grain with the most punctual 
regularity. Along the splendid Roman roads Csesar 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 63 

traveled from Rome to the Rhone in his four-wheeled 
carriage in about eight days, making seventy-seven 
miles a day. In his two-wheeled light carriage he 
made ninety-seven miles a day. An inscription tells of 
a merchant in Hierapolis who traveled from Asia 
Minor to Italy seventy-two times. 

At the Ecumenical Conference in New York in 1900, 
Canon Edmonds remarked: 'Trom whichever of the 
great missionary centers we start, from Antioch, from 
Alexandria, from Carthage, or from Constantinople, 
the footprints of the translator of the Bible are there. 
Beautiful are their feet, and their footprints are not 
only beautiful but indelible." Christian travelers then 
did the work of the modern colporteur, and spread 
abroad the ancient Gospels in the original Greek, also 
in Coptic, in Syriac, and in Latin, thus reaching im- 
portant centers and provinces of the Roman Empire. 
Later, in more distant regions, even beyond the boun- 
daries of the Romans, they carried Gothic, Anglo- 
Saxon, or the Slav Scriptures of Cyril and Methodius. 
The stream of such a history becomes broader when 
we reach the times of Wyclif, the "morning star of the 
Reformation." 

Mrs. Conant speaks of Wyclif 's version as ''England's 
first Bible, and for a hundred and thirty years her only 
one. The great, practical Reformer had not urged 
through this gigantic task as a mere experiment. He 
had his eye on a definite, practical result, the means 
for accomplishing which were in his own hands. . . . 
He had at command one of the most effective agencies 
of modern publication. The active, hardy, itinerant 
preachers whom he had sent out to proclaim by word 
of mouth glad tidings to the poor now formed a band 
of colporteurs for the written Word." Dr. Fisher in 
his history of 'The Reformation" says of the Wyclifites 
or Lollards, "They were not exterminated; but the 



64 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

principles of Wyclif continued to have adherents in 
the poor and obscure classes in England, down to the 
outbreaking of the Protestant movement." Then 
came the Reformers, who had a vast advantage over 
their predecessors in the printing press, with its streams 
of Bibles in the principal tongues of Europe, and an 
unknown, immortal host of distributors. Dr. Fisher 
says, again: "In all Protestant lands, the universal 
diflFusion of the Bible . . . has carried into the 
households, even of the humblest classes, a most effec- 
tive means of mental stimulation and instruction." 

America may never know how much she owes to 
colportage. At the time of the organization of the 
American Bible Society in 1816 it was estimated that in 
eight states and territories alone there were still 
seventy-eight thousand families destitute of the Word 
of life. Samuel J. Mills in his missionary journeys 
met a man in Illinois who said that he had been trying 
for ten years to buy a Bible. It was brought home to 
his heart that this man was one thousand miles from 
any place where a Bible could be printed, and that 
many people in that wilderness must remain thus 
destitute to the end of their lives. Eminent patriots, 
statesmen, educators, were in the convention that 
organized the American Bible Society in New York 
City in May, 1816. In his ''Centennial History of the 
American Bible Society," Dr. Henry Otis Dwight says: 
"One of the great facts of Bible distribution is that 
multitudes who have never read the Bible are every 
year persuaded by the colporteurs to read the Book, 
and are led to yield to its influence for good." 

The greatest development of colportage the world 
had seen was during the nineteenth century, through 
the Bible societies. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society was organized at the London Tavern in March, 
1804, and its "Centennial History" was writb^i by 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 65 

William Canton. A history of colportage must very 
largely employ the records of the American Bible 
Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
But for a long time the British and Foreign Bible Society 
had the distinction of being greater than all other 
Bible societies combined. In its yearly reports of 
funds expended, workers employed, Scriptures dis- 
tributed, new translations or revisions of translations 
of Scripture, and languages used, it far surpasses the 
American Bible Society. Where is the Christian patri- 
otism of America, which can calmly allow so large a 
part of the world's burden of need thus to rest upon 
British shoulders .^^ American enthusiasm for its own 
Bible Society seems feeble and faint in comparison 
with the powerful organizations, the demonstrations of 
loyalty and affection, that continually support the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, which is the greatest 
colportage agency in the world. In the spring of 1920 
it reported at its annual meeting that through col- 
porteurs in the previous year it had placed nearly five 
and a quarter million volumes in the hands of people 
speaking hundreds of tongues. This result, which is a 
quarter of a million greater than in 1918, "appears the 
more remarkable when we recollect that in central and 
eastern Europe, as well as in Russia, hardly any of our 
colporteurs have as yet been able to resume their work 
since the war." From the monthly magazine of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society, June 1921, we 
further quote concerning the 538 versions in the 
Society's historical table of languages: ''Of these, 160 
fresh names have been added since the present century 
began. The list now includes the Bible completed in 
135 dijBFerent forms of speech, and the New Testa- 
ment completed in 126 others." This statement shows 
us all the kingdoms of the world as the field for col- 
portage. 



66 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

The report of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
for 1910 states that in 1909 the Holy Synod of Russia 
refused to authorize an edition of the Russian Bible 
without the Apocrypha. Accordingly the Society for 
years could circulate in Russia only the New Testa- 
ment, or Pentateuch, or Psalms, or other portions, and 
the report says, "Thus the problem of the Apocrypha 
meets us at every turn on the Continent of Europe." 
Between the years 1821 and 1826 a controversy was 
carried on which resulted in the exclusion of the Apocry- 
pha from all Bibles issued by the British and Foreign 
Bible Society. At that period the Scottish Bible 
societies withdrew, later forming the National Bible 
Society of Scotland. These two Bible societies, also 
the American Bible Society, agree in this principle and 
exclude the Apocrypha from their publications. The 
Jews did not accept the Apocrypha as inspired, and 
these books are not in Hebrew Bibles. Jesus, also the 
New Testament writers, freely quoted from or alluded 
to the Old Testament, but never the Apocrypha. 

Three forms of the Apocrypha exist, first in the 
Greek Old Testament of the second century b.c. A 
legend narrated that it was made by seventy trans- 
lators, hence its name, the Septuagint, from septuaginta, 
the Latin for ''seventy," also its symbol, the "LXX." 
For hundreds of years this first translation of the Old 
Testament was the most widely circulated Bible, many 
Jews using Greek, though the existing copies are from 
Christian sources. Many leading Fathers of the 
Church in western Europe, including Augustine him- 
self, never knew Greek. In the fifth century a.d. 
Jerome, the most learned of ancient translators, 
finished the Latin Vulgate, and included the Apocrypha, 
with some changes from those of the "LXX." For 
instance, the Vulgate editions omit the Third Book of 
the Maccabees. He testified that the Apocrypha were 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 67 

not inspired, and that "it requires the utmost prudence 
to extract gold from mud." But he placed after 
Revelation, at the close of the book. III and IV Esdras, 
and the Prayer of Manasses, which both Catholics 
and Protestants reject as not canonical. The West- 
minster Confession of Faith, in the first chapter, says, 
'The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of 
divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of Scripture; 
and are therefore of no authority in the Church of God, 
nor are to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, 
than other human writings." The Council of Trent 
said, *Tf anyone receive not, as sacred and canonical, 
the said books entire with all their parts as they have 
been used to be read in the Catholic Church, and as 
they are contained in the old Latin vulgar edition, let 
him be anathema." Accordingly, we have the list of 
the LXX; then also, with changes in arrangement and 
verses (for instance, in Esther), in the Vulgate editions; 
and lastly, in modern Catholic Bibles, as in the English 
Douay, the list of the Vulgate, but omitting the three 
above mentioned. Thus we have eleven: Tobit, 
Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch (including the 
Epistle of Jeremiah), the two books of the Maccabees, 
the additions, or "'The Rest of . . . Esther" and three 
additions to the book of Daniel, namely, the Song of 
the Three Holy Children, The History of Susanna, and 
Bel and the Dragon. There are no Apocrypha for the 
New Testament, the problem wholly concerning the 
spurious additions to the Old Testament. 

The late Dr. B. B. Warfield's explanation of inspira- 
tion was that it is "the fundamental quality of the 
written Scriptures, by virtue of which they are the 
Word of God, and are clothed with all the character- 
istics which properly belong to the Word of God. 
Accordingly, the very words of Scripture are accounted 
authoritative and 'not to be broken'; its prophecies 



68 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

are sure; and its whole contents, historical as well as 
doctrinal and ethical, not only entirely trustworthy 
but designedly framed for the spiritual profit of all 
ages." On the other hand, the reader's attention is 
invited to passages of the Apocrypha, showing errors 
of fact and history, errors of doctrine, where falsehood 
or other crimes are praised, morality based on expedi- 
ency, alms commended as atonement for sin, and 
approval of prayers for the dead, or to saints. A vast 
amount of evangelical literature is safer and saner than 
these writings. 

In Tobit 1 : 4, 5, we learn that the ten tribes revolted 
from Judah under Jeroboam in Tobit's youth, making 
him two hundred and seventy years old at the time of 
the Assyrian Captivity. But, ch. 14 : 2, he died at 
the age of a hundred and two years, (or in LXX 
14:11, a hundred and fifty-eight years.) An angel, 
ch. 12 : 15, calls himself Raphael, also one of the cap- 
tives of the tribe of Nephthali, ch. 7 : 3, also ch. 5 : 18, 
that he is Azarias, son of Ananias, and as Dr. W. H. 
Green remarks, contrary to all analogy of angels' visits, 
goes on foot with Tobit, three hundred miles. 

In Judith 1:5, Nebuchadnezzar reigns in Nineveh, 
whereas Babylon was his capital. Holofernes' march 
was a ''most extraordinary zigzag." Joachim or Elia- 
chim is said to have been the contemporary high priest, 
"whereas there was no high priest of this name until 
after the Exile, and then the kingdom of the Medes, 
ch. 1 : 1, had passed away " 

The story of Esther begins, ch. 1:3, in the third 
year of the king's reign, Esther is presented to the 
king, ch. 2 : 16-21, in the seventh year, but in the 
Apocryphal addition, ch. 11 : 2, Mordecai is rewarded 
in the second year. The cause of Haman's hatred 
for Mordecai, ch. 3, is contradicted by the addition, 
ch. 12 : 6. And, ch. 16 : 10, Haman is a Macedonian, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 69 

V. 14, seeking to transfer the Persian kingdom to the 
Macedonians. 

Wisdom claims to have been written by Solomon, 
ch. 9 : 7, 8, '*Thou hast chosen me to be a king. . . . 
and hast commanded me to build a temple." In 
ch. 15 : 14, **The enemies of thy people, that hold them 
in subjection," contradicts I Kings 4 : 20-25, since 
there was no such subjection in his time. He wrote 
in Hebrew; but in the LXX ch. 4:2 are words 
borrowed from Grecian games not in use till long after 
Solomon's time: "It triumpheth crowned for ever, win- 
ning the reward of undefiled conflicts." See also ch. 
10 : 12. There are imaginary additions to the miracles, 
ch. 16 : 20, 21: "Thou didst send them from heaven 
bread . . . agreeing to every taste . . . and 
serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itseK to 
every man's likings." So, in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth chapters are additions to the words of Moses 
concerning the plagues of Egypt. A wrong significance 
is given to the priest's dress, "a virtue which was 
due only to his office and mediation," ch. 18 :24, "for 
in the long garment was the whole world." Chapter 
10 : 4 mentions the murder of Abel as the cause of the 
Flood. In ch. 14 : 15 idolatry is traced to fathers 
making images of their dead children, instead of the 
reason in Rom. 1 : 21, "Their foolish heart was dark- 
ened." There are also quotations, somewhat modified, 
from Isaiah who lived long after Solomon: ch. 13 : 11 
from Isa., ch. 44; ch. 11 : 23 from Isa. 40 : 15; ch. 
5 : 18-21 from Isa. 59 : 16, 17. 

Baruch, a "pious fraud," ch. 1 : 15, quotes the prayer 
of Daniel from his ninth chapter; and ch. 2:11 quotes 
Neh. 9 : 10, whereas, Nehemiah and Daniel lived in 
later times than Baruch and Jeremiah. Baruch 1 : 
1-3 says that Baruch was in Babylon when Jerusalem 
was taken, contradicting Jer. 43 : 6, 7, saying that 



70 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Jeremiah and Baruch were taken to Egypt. Baruch 
1 : 7-10 refers to the Temple as still standing; but 
the Temple was burned when Jerusalem was captured. 
After the Exile, Ezra 1 : 7, Cyrus brought forth and 
sent back to Jerusalem the vessels which had been 
taken by Nebuchadnezzar; Baruch 1 : 8 says they were 
sent back in the time of Jeremiah. Baruch 1 : 14 says 
this book was to be read in the Temple of the Lord, 
but there is no trace of such a custom among the Jews. 
The Epistle of Jeremiah inserted in a different place 
from its position in the LXX, says, Baruch 6 : 2, that 
the Captivity in Babylon was to be seven generations, 
though Jeremiah prophesied that it would be seventy 
years. 

Of the additions to Daniel, The Song of the Three 
Children, inserted in the third chapter, is not appro- 
priate to its occasion, which was their deliverance from 
the fiery furnace; for instance, "O ye ice and snow 
. . . O whales, and all that move in the waters!" Verse 
47, of Catholic Bibles adds a statement not warranted 
by Daniel: that the flame mounted up above the 
furnace forty and nine cubits. The History of Susanna, 
ch. 13, vs. 54, 55, 58, 59, quoted by Jerome, has 
plays upon Greek words in the LXX, demonstrating 
clearly its Greek origin, whereas Daniel was written 
mostly in Hebrew, with chapters or passages in Ar- 
amaic. The third of these additions, styled by Saint 
Jerome, the "'fable" of Bel and the Dragon, Dan., 
ch. 14, opposes the statements of Daniel in several par- 
ticulars. The two books ascribe the hatred of the great 
men against Daniel to completely different causes; as 
one writer says, '*Both cannot be true; and we are in no 
difficulty as to which we should give the preference." 

Historians do not confirm the statement, I Mace, 
1:6, 7, as to the death of Alexander. And con- 
cerning the Romans, I Mace. 8 : 16 is incorrect, "And 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 71 

that they committed their government to one man 
every year, who ruled over all their country." Anti- 
ochus dies in Babylonia, I Mace. 6 : 4, 16, but is be- 
headed in Persia, II Mace. 1 : 13, 16, and dies of a 
plague in the mountains, II Mace. 9 : 28. II Macca- 
bees abounds in fables, for instance, about the sacred 
fire, ch. 1 : 19, about Jeremiah in Mount Nebo, ch. 
2 : 4, and about the apparition that prevented Helio- 
dorus from invading the sanctity of the Temple, 
ch. 3 : 25. The LXX in II Mace. 1 : 18 says more 
plainly than the Vulgate and Cathohc Bibles, that 
Nehemiah built the Temple and the altar, which were 
built long before he came from Persia, Ezra 3:2. 

Concerning any claim to inspiration, see II Mace. 
15 : 39, almost the end of the book, '*Here will I make 
an end, and if I have done well, and as is fitting the 
story, it is that which I desired: but if slenderly and 
meanly, it is that which I could attain unto." Calvin 
in his "Antidote to the Council of Trent" exclaimed, 
'"How very alien this acknowledgement from the 
majesty of the Holy Spirit!" Also the prologue to 
Ecclesiasticus : "Wherefore let me entreat you to read 
it with favour and attention, and to pardon us, where- 
in we may seem ... to come short of some words. 
. . . For the same things uttered in Hebrew, and 
translated into another tongue, have not the same 
force in them." Perplexity arising from the absence of 
a prophet is alluded to in I Mace. 4 : 46; 9 : 27; 14 : 41. 

More serious than errors of fact are errors of doctrine. 
In Tobit the angel's falsehood has been mentioned. 
Judith, ch. 9 : 13, prays for a blessing upon her false- 
hood: "Do thou strike him by the graces of my 
lips." By the way, this book is the only evidence 
in history of the existence of such a place as 
Bethulia. Judith's conduct is praised. Ch. 15:10-12. 
In ch. 9, she praises the crime of Simeon, which is con- 



72 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

demned in Gen., ch. 49. Yet,ch. 11 : 10-13, a breach 
of the ceremonial law, is thought a deadly sin. In 
Tobit 6 : 19 the angel advises him to lay the liver of 
the fish on the fire, that the evil spirit may be driven 
away; with which we may compare Matt. 17 : 21, 
"'This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fast- 
ing." And ch. 12 : 12, the angel as mediator con- 
veyed his prayer to the Lord, contrary to I Tim. 
2 : 5, "one mediator." As to alms, Tobit 12 : 9, "Alms 
delivereth from death, and the same is that which 
purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life 
everlasting." See also ch. 4 : 9-12 and Ecclus. 3 : 33. In 
Wisdom, it seems that the doctrine of emanation is 
taught, ch. 7 :25; also the preexistence of souls, ch. 
8 : 19, 20; also, the creation of the world from 
preexisting matter, ch. 11 :18; and that "the corruptible 
body presseth down the soul," ch. 9 : 15. Ecclus. 
12:5-7, "give not to the ungodly: hold back thy 
bread, and give it not unto him," differs from the 
Sermon on the Mount. So also, ch. 33 : 25-30, advising 
cruelty to slaves, and the expression of hatred, ch. 
50 : 27, 28. Its morality is based on expediency, ch. 
38 : 16-18, "Let tears fall down over the dead . . . 
use lamentation, as he is worthy, and that a day or two, 
lest thou be evil spoken of." Baruch 3 : 4 has been 
used as a proof text for praying to saints: "Hear now 
the prayers of the dead Israelites." See also II Mace. 
12 : 41-46, "It is therefore a holy and a wholesome 
thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed 
from sins," and ch. 15 : 14, the vision of Jeremiah, the 
dead prophet, praying for Israel. II Mace. 14 : 37-46 
commends the suicide of Razias.* These quotations 
complete a chain of evidence showing errors in all 
these apocryphal books. 

* Dr. W. H. Green of Princeton, New Jersey, "General Introduc- 
tion to the Old Testament, The Canon." 



Chapter IH 

EARLY MISSIONS AMONG SLAVS 

The views of Dr. Montgomery as to the principles 
of missionary work among foreigners are well known 
among his brethren. His great emphasis was for the 
gospel and its proclamation. From unpublished por- 
tions of a manuscript that he prepared we have here 
his statements of the true and only foundation for all 
this work: 

*Trom a forest-clearing, river-trafficking hamlet, 
Pittsburgh has sprung forward within a century to 
leadership in the world's great centers, industrially, 
commercially, educationally, and religiously. The 
question of what she may be in the future, and what 
her influence on the world will be, will depend upon 
whether her citizens have the courage, at any cost to 
themselves, to maintain for themselves and transmit 
to their children the heritage of faith in and devotion to 
the God of their fathers, by the dissemination of the 
teachings of an open Bible; against such the gates of 
hell shall not prevail." He adds his conviction that the 
people have such courage, and that the thing will be 
done. He further discusses the obligation of the 
Church: 

" 'As the Father hath sent me into the world, even 
so send I you,' was spoken to the Church, and nothing 
short of a full surrender and a complete dedication on 
the part of the Church can possibly please him who 
gave the commission while he himseK stood within 
the shadow of Calvary. The whole life and purpose 
of the Son of God in this world was an interpretation 
of the diaracter of God and a manifestatioii of tixe 

73 



74 THE COMING OP THE SLAV 

unmeasurable love of God for the human race and a 
revelation of the unspeakable hatred of God for sin 
which is the curse of that race. When Christ came into 
the world it was because *God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' . . . 
It is therefore clearly the business of the Church to inter- 
pret to the whole world the character and purpose of 
Christ, as it was his business to interpret the heart of 
God the Father. *Go . . . make disciples of all 
nations' — this is the commission. It is not difficult of 
interpretation. There is no ambiguity here. 

''The field is 'white already unto harvest.' No such 
opportunity was ever before given to any nation as is 
given to the Church now in the United States of Amer- 
ica. If to the stranger within our gates is given the 
helping hand as he comes with the hand of help, if the 
nations of the world mingling in the toil of American 
industry learn not to hate one another, if old mis- 
understandings which have caused bloodshed and 
bitterness may be corrected, if somehow there may 
come out of the 'melting pot' a flow of humanity that 
has been freed from dross and superstition, if the 
blight of centuries of spiritual tyranny and priestcraft 
can be cured by the illumination of the intellect and 
the regeneration of the soul, then will American liberty 
be secure, and eastern and southern Europe will be 
aroused to greater and better things through the return 
of their sons, who in America, like Onesimus with Paul 
at Rome, have come back in newness of life and purpose 
to enrich the homeland in that which is worth far more 
than gold." 

A few years prior to the establishment of Presby- 
terian work among Slavs in western Pennsylvania, 
missions had been begun among the French and Italians 
in Pittsburgh and Allegheny Presbyteries. History 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 75 

must here record the labors of a faithful man of God, 
Rev. John Launitz, for many years pastor in Alle- 
gheny of the German Presbyterian Church, who could 
also preach in English, French, and Italian. 

Slavs in the Pittsburgh region outnumber French 
and Italians combined. From the time that Slav 
evangelization was first suggested here. Dr. W. L. 
McEwan, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, 
Pittsburgh, was its leader and champion. If docu- 
mentary evidence of this were desired, it might be 
seen in two of his published discourses, the first being 
an address before the Presbyterian Synod of Pennsyl- 
vania, October, 1902. Here he describes the nature and 
the needs of the newer immigration: ''The first diffi- 
culty that confronted us in our efforts was the lack of 
qualified men to work among these people. It is 
hardly possible to secure from the old country Protes- 
tant ministers to undertake unorganized mission work. 
After much correspondence [doubtless largely conducted 
by Dr. McEwan himself] we were able to secure Rev. 
V. Losa, to whose wisdom, spirituality, tact, and 
earnestness we are indebted largely for the progress 
that has been made. ... It was with great difficulty 
he was induced to leave a settled, comfortable pas- 
torate in Nebraska to begin a work among the thou- 
sands of people single-handed, as far as human help 
was concerned, and with no possible introduction to 
those among whom he was to work." He then quotes 
Dr. Losa's own account of his method of work as he 
began at Schoenville, a short distance from Coraopolis, 
near Pittsburgh: 

"At first my work consisted of visiting only. I 
announced services at once, but for several weeks I 
had no audience. I saw plainly that my work must be 
personal. When I noticed that I was welcome in a 
house, I revisited it again and again, and prolonged my 



76 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

visits. I read and explained the Scriptures to those 
who would listen, and thus interested them in the Word 
of God. Soon they began to read the Bible them- 
selves, and ask questions on my next visit. My visits 
lasted often three hours at a time. In a few months 
four of the men gave their hearts to Christ. Others 
were reached in the same way. Very soon after I 
started my work I made it a point to visit the hospital 
once a week. There was often a Slav among the 
inmates. Once I met a young man in the hospital, 
part of whose hand|was amputated. He was filled 
with joy when he learned that I was a Protestant 
clergyman. He purchased a Bible at once and read it 
daily. I followed this young man from the hospital 
to his place of boarding, and to-day we have about ten 
young men in one mission reached through this hospital 
patient. I am thoroughly convinced that it requires a 
steady perseverance with individuals to be successful 
in this work, and, of course, a man unable to speak 
their language cannot do the work. 

*'The English mission in the town, before I came 
there, was utterly inadequate. There is another point 
I emphasize. As soon as a man was converted, I con- 
vinced him that it was his duty to bring others to Christ, 
and taught him the different ways in which he might 
hope to do this: First, to live an exemplary Christian 
life; second, not to lose an opportunity to give his per- 
sonal testimony to the power of Christ to save; third, 
to distribute tracts and take an order for a Bible 
whenever anyone inquired for it. In this way, of course, 
I was helped immensely, and when other duties came 
to me and I was unable to make so many and so long 
visits, there were substitutes at work among the con- 
verts. In the summer of 1901 our audiences were so 
large that crowds were standing on the street. Ever 
since, our quarters have beea filled with regular attend- 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 77 

ants. If many of the regular attendants had not moved 
away during the last eighteen months, I would have 
been very much embarrassed as to how to shelter them, 
as our little room is packed when forty members are 
present. Sometimes w^hen we had fifty present some 
had to be placed in the adjoining kitchen. 

''Our converts come from Roman Catholic, Greek 
Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed people. The plain- 
est preaching of the simple gospel will reach these 
people. It must be taken for granted when you 
address them that they do riot know even the alphabet 
of Christianity, and when they are converted they 
will tell you that you were right. Protestant or not 
Protestant, they are spiritually dead, ignorant of the 
fundamental Christian doctrines and full of super- 
stition. I consider it a great mistake to gather the 
nominal Protestants, irrespective of their spiritual con- 
dition, into a church. Sometimes this is done with a 
view of teaching them to live better lives, when already 
they are in the full communion of the Church, but 
repeatedly this method has proved to be a failure. 
There are many obstacles and hindrances in this work. 
The people do not care for you at first, and many of 
them become your enemies and hate you when you 
begin to teach them to abandon their vices. Then 
priests and nuns try to neutralize your work. Beer 
and whiskey men see an enemy in you, and multiply 
their efforts to make the people drink heavily; but 
against all these and other hindrances stands the 
ever-powerful gospel. It requires that one firmly 
believe that God means what he says, and that he 
will fulfill his promises. Had I not believed this most 
sincerely and firmly when I started this work I would 
have abandoned it before I began it. From the human 
standpoint it was just as the physician in Schoenville 
told me upon my arrival. He said, 'You had better go 



78 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

back to Nebraska, as the obstacles are insurmountable 
here.' Now three of my young men, two of whom 
have been employed for months as colporteurs, are in 
school with a view of being educated as missionaries." 

Dr. McEwan states that "during the year of 1902 
six young men, converts under the preaching of Mr. 
Losa, have been employed as colporteurs and their 
work has been remarkably successful. With their help 
and the help of the woman missionary, Mr. Losa has 
started and is carrying on five Sunday schools about 
Schoenville. Cottage prayer meetings are also held, as 
well as the regular prayer meetings and the two church 
services. A suitable building for the work at Schoenville 
is now under construction, which will be provided with 
classrooms, night-school rooms, bathrooms, and an am- 
ple auditorium seating 250 people." 

His later discourse, published in 1906, shows progress 
in the work. His text was Num. 15 : 16: '*One law 
and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger 
that sojourneth with you." "The American govern- 
ment has one law and one manner for its citizens and 
the strangers that sojourn among them. The American 
public-school system receives the children of every 
nationality, only requiring that they be able to speak 
enough English to understand and recite. It is to the 
credit of these people, and by the mercy of God, 
rather than by our own wisdom and provision, that 
there are as yet so few breaches of the law and so little 
to cause us apprehension. Many of them will learn 
to love this new country of freedom. . . . There are 
others who form organizations to keep up their alle- 
giance to the land from which they came, and who have 
no appreciation of the blessings they receive here. It is 
a problem for all statesmen and all patriots and all 
educators, and for every citizen." 

He here speaks of three ministers laboring among 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 79 

the Slavs, of a membership of 130 in the mother chm'ch 
at Schoenville, of nine young men from its ranks who 
were studying for the ministry, of ten women mission- 
aries working in nine different schools; and he gives 
facts about the colporteurs, some of whom from time to 
time had been lent to other presbyteries. All this work 
was then under the ''Joint Committee of the Presby- 
teries of Pittsburgh and Allegheny." In 1904 a Pres- 
byterian Missionary Training School was begun, where 
young women of various nationalities could be pre- 
pared to do mission work among their own people. 
Dr. McEwan had pleaded for this. He now reports, 
"A suitable building in Allegheny has been leased; a 
qualified matron is in charge." 

Finally he makes this appeal: *'It is enough to break 
the hearts of those who are familiar with the great needs, 
and who see the open doors that constitute providential 
calls, to attempt to carry on this work with the inade- 
quate support that is provided. The feeling is constant 
that if only the facts could be put before the Christian 
people who have means, the responses would make the 
funds to be multiplied. In the name of common 
humanity we can make our appeal for these people 
whose physical surroundings are incompatible with 
health and morality. In the name of patriotism we 
can appeal that these people be educated into the 
responsibility of citizenship, and that the great Chris- 
tian institutions of the civilization which we enjoy 
may not be broken down by the sheer weight of igno- 
rance and alienage. In the name of your own safety 
and security we can appeal for help for these people. 
Now, by reason of the prosperity and activity in indus- 
trial life, they are kept busy and measurably con- 
tented. If some time of depression and idleness should 
come, unless they are educated and Christianized, it 
does not require the eye of a prophet or the spirit of a 



80 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

pessimist to foresee incalculable dangers. In the name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose salvation is for all men, 
who came into this world "to seek and to save that which 
is lost," who shed his blood for the remission of sins, 
who commanded us to preach the gospel to every 
creature, we can appeal to you to help these poor and 
needy souls. It is difficult to see how a stronger appeal 
could be made to a Christian than to let the bare facts 
concerning the number and the needs of these people 
speak for themselves." 

One striking fact in the history of this Schoenville 
Mission throws a flood of light on the evangelical 
purpose of all this work. When the building that Dr. 
McEwan mentions was planned, one patron contrib- 
uted sixteen hundred dollars to include a swimming 
pool. The time of the workers was more and more 
absorbed in the spiritual part of their routine, in prayer 
meetings, in Bible classes, and the like. This swimming 
pool then became a distraction and a burden. At 
last they abandoned the care of it, and closed it up. 
More power to such institutions ! Many chapters could 
be written of very different management in other 
institutions which ask the help of Christian men, where 
the physical, the recreational, has crowded out the 
higher, the spiritual work; where the swimming pool 
has eclipsed, or rather submerged, the prayer meeting; 
where young foreigners may learn to dance or to play 
billiards, but are not led to the Bible class. 

The story of the way in which the Training School 
was transferred to Coraopolis should be remembered. 
At the beginning of his work, it was necessary for 
Dr. Losa to choose a residence in Coraopolis, no suitable 
house being available at Schoenville. Scarcely any 
foreigners were there, but gradually some servant girls 
and day laborers, Slavs, began to locate there, and 
*Dr. Losa succeeded in gathering them for regular 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 81 

prayer meetings. Mrs. Losa, herself an experienced 
missionary, rendered invaluable assistance. At one 
of these prayer meetings some asked why they might 
not have a church building of their own in Coraopolis, 
instead of going for such services to Schoenville. Dr. 
Losa explained that the people of the presbytery were 
contributing more than before to missions, and would 
not be likely to add this project until the people did 
something for themselves. They requested him to 
draw up a subscription paper. About thirty were pres- 
ent, day laborers and servant girls almost exclusively; 
and scarcely one subscribed less than twenty to twenty- 
five dollars, or several hundred dollars in all. This 
again aroused Dr. McEwan, who soon added to the 
amount. Some lots were purchased in Coraopolis, but 
in 1908 a building formerly used as a sanatorium became 
available for the Training School. This was purchased 
and used for some time for church services, and also as 
a school. The first payment for this property was 
accomplished through the sale of the lots, which had 
been a result of the prayer meeting and the Slav sub- 
scriptions. At a later time, the presbytery built a fine 
church at another corner of the lot, and secured next 
to it a residence for Dr. Losa. 

One great evangelical purpose has been clearly 
marked from the beginning in this work among for- 
eigners. That purpose, as stated very simply by Dr. 
Losa, is ''to bring people to Christ." This purpose 
dominates the details of every department or phase of 
work. In a sewing class the sewing lesson is preceded by 
devotional exercises, and the Scripture has more 
emphasis than the other instruction. In 1920, Rev. 
Frank Svacha acted as a field secretary, and his reports 
show this same spirit. His use of the stereopticon was 
admirable; but whether it was used to illustrate Christ's 
'Xast Week" or the life of Washington, the gospel was 



82 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

in evidence. His report on '*The Devotional Spirit of 
Our Vacation Bible Schools" says: *'At the very- 
beginning of our devotional service there must be an 
atmosphere of worship. Let us realize that it is the 
quiet hour with God, that shall be the very best founda- 
tion for the morning session of our school. If that is 
attained, then under its influence the work that follows 
becomes a pleasure. The sweet influence of the Spirit 
of God dwells in the soul and gives both the teacher 
and pupil the patience, perseverance, and faithfulness 
that are so much needed to make the work successful." 
The pages that recount his numerous visits among the 
missions, ascertaining their condition and progress, 
are incidental proof that the only Americanization that 
is worthy of such a name is Christian Americanization. 
The program and exhibit planned by the superin- 
tendents, Drs. Montgomery and Losa, for the session 
of Pittsburgh Presbytery in November, 1920, seemed 
like a climax for their twenty years of evangelical work 
among Slavs. It was held, only a few weeks before 
Dr. Montgomery's death, in the main auditorium of the 
First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
and in the adjoining room there were interesting photo- 
graphs with legends as to phases of the work, also a 
display of Scriptures and Christian literature in the 
languages used by the colporteurs and an exhibit of 
needlework. The program lasted about two hours, 
was instructive, convincing, and had much variety. 
There were recitations by children from the missions, 
speeches by missionaries of different nationalities, 
music in chorus by pupils of the Training School at 
Coraopolis, and singing in English, though some of 
the participants had arrived in this country from 
Czechoslovakia only a few weeks before. One hymn 
was sung by the throng of workers in ten languages. 
The superintendents made addresses. Dr. Mont- 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 83 

gomery's was not committed to writing and therefore 
cannot be reproduced. From Dr. Losa's notes we 
have the following: 

"Twenty years ago Pittsburgh Presbytery decided 
to try an experiment. Among a hundred thousand 
foreigners they had two little missions, Italian and 
French. They then called from the West a man who 
was inexperienced in the many-sided problem of 
beliefs, languages, and customs, but willing and devoted 
to this cause. Difficulties in the initial stages of this 
work were such that it is a wonder that it did not die 
in its infancy. And the credit for the survival of this 
child belongs to another man of this presbytery who in 
the providence of God was its most gentle nurse. Of 
course, you know that I refer to Dr. William L. 
McEwan, who will always be lovingly remembered by 
the first little groups of workers of twelve, fifteen, and 
twenty years ago." Dr. Losa also complimented the 
committees, "committees that cannot be matched in 
the United States: First, the Home Missions Com- 
mittee of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh; second, the 
Joint Committee of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Presby- 
teries, that followed; third, the trustees of Pittsburgh 
Presbytery, who have for their executive officer a 
man (Dr. Montgomery) who has not only a rare 
knowledge of the field, and wisdom and tact in using 
this knowledge, but also a genuine love toward these 
immense masses of future United States citizens, and 
toward the workers. And here lies the secret of the 
success — and all the rest of the credit for any success 
in this work belongs to these faithful and untiring 
workers of many nationalities that stand before you 
to-day, and the converts that do not stand before you. 
. . . You must read between the lines to comprehend 
fully what has been done. That some fifteen hundred 
actual members were received, twenty ministers 



84 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

ordained, twenty girls became missionaries, fifteen men 
became colporteurs, thousands of children were gath- 
ered in Sabbath schools — those figures will give you 
only an incomplete idea of the whole work. Also, the 
thirty thousand dollars' worth of Bibles, New Testa- 
ments, and religious books sold, and millions of pages 
of tracts distributed, will not tell you the full story of 
your colporteur's work. You would have to read 
between the lines about thousands of souls who were 
influenced by your missionaries and missions, about 
hundreds of converts who exerted a wholesome influence 
in their native countries, and some who started congre- 
gations in Italy, Jugoslavia, and other places, to 
appreciate the work. . . . You would have to follow 
your missionaries from door to door and live through 
the experience of having the doors slammed in your 
face, of being ejected from some houses, of having 
promises to come to the meeting or to send the children 
to the Sabbath school, ninety-five per cent of which 
are never fulfilled, to appreciate the heroic spirit of 
your workers. 

"And you would have to enter the closed rooms of 
your missionaries and see their tears, the pessimism that 
slyly but persistently enters their hearts, and would 
surely destroy their usefulness and chase them away 
from their work if it were not for the new strength, new 
enthusiasm, that fills their hearts again after a fervent 
prayer that is poured out often in agony. You would 
have to meet some of the converts and hear the story 
from their own lips to realize fully that this kind of 
work done in this way and by these men and women, 
foreign-born or of foreign parentage, is the only kind 
that lays the right foundation for pure and true 
Americanism; and you would realize also the folly of 
the other kind of work that is so much emphasized 
to-day, and that goes only halfway, and the minor half 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 85 

at that — just to the mind and head, but not to the heart 
and spirit. These exhibits will prove to you that we 
go the whole way and that the final goal is never lost 
sight of." 

Then he discussed their periodical literature, and if 
the life of the American people is to be gauged by what 
they read, especially on Sunday, "what shall we say 
of the foreigners who have no religious papers, and 
whose secular papers are far below those of Americans 
in spiritual respects, papers that write only sneeringly 
of religion and faith in Christ? Brethren, the letters 
that come to the editors of the papers published by the 
Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work under 
your supervision would convince you that these papers 
that are weekly visitors to thousands of foreign families 
are bringing untold blessings to them, and save many 
of them, hundreds of individuals, from infidelity. 

''Do we make and have we made any mistakes? 
The speaker confesses that he learned more from his 
mistakes than from his professors and books. Each 
mistake, rightly viewed, was a great asset to him for 
future work." 

Finally he appealed for the workers, that the brethren 
would be patient with them, encourage them, and not 
let them suffer financially. The presbytery always 
has taken good care of them; yet none must suppose 
that any of them are living in luxury ! 

It was a pleasure to Dr. Montgomery to read a number 
of letters testifying to appreciation of this exhibit. One 
of these was from Dr. Isaac Boyce, as follows, dated, 
from Allison Park, Pennsylvania, November 26, 1920: 

'Tt was my privilege to be present in the meeting of 
the Presbytery of Pittsburgh on November 9, and to 
note and study carefully the exhibit of the foreign- 
mission work under your superintendency; and I feel 
that it is but just to give you my personal appreciation 



86 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

of the work being carried forward in the region of 
Pittsburgh among the foreign population residing in it. 

"I was, as you are aware, for twenty-seven years a 
missionary of our Foreign Board in Mexico. I am not, 
therefore, a stranger to mission problems, and am able 
to appreciate the difficulties met with in carrying on 
such a work. ... It is, therefore, a very great 
pleasure to me to express to you my approval of your 
work, and to congratulate you on the fine results so 
far obtained in it. 

"Your organization meets with my most hearty 
approval. Mission work is, after all, the same the 
world over. It was my privilege to have a considerable 
part in the organizing and developing of our work in 
Mexico, as well as to study mission organization in all 
our world-wide work. It was rather surprising, as I 
studied your methods and your organization, to note 
how closely you have followed the general plan of 
work obtaining in the whole foreign-mission work of 
the Church, and I am enough of a Presbyterian to 
believe that our system is not excelled by the plans and 
methods of any Church. I note: 

' 'First. That while you recognize the absolute 
necessity of money for carrying on your work, you yet 
seem to appreciate that money is not by any means 
the most important factor entering into it; and that it 
has to be constantly watched lest it become a danger 
to the largest measure of success possible in such a work. 

''Second. You evidently recognize that the foreign 
worker, whether lay or minister, is the factor which 
must, in the long run, insure success or result in failure. 
There is always the danger of giving undue importance 
to the Americans who direct the work. Missionaries 
the world over have come to recognize the danger 
resulting from giving undue importance and promi- 
nence to the American missionary, and looking on the 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 87 

foreign worker as of rather smaller importance. In the 
beginning of such a work the American looms large; 
but in the development and permanent organization 
and growth of such an enterprise the native worker, 
whether he works in the U. S. A. or in a foreign coun- 
try, must take the prominent place, and gradually come 
to control and direct in large part the work. The 
American worker must decrease and the native increase. 
And I was happy to note in your exhibit that you 
appreciate this fact. 

"Third. The importance you are giving to the 
training of foreign workers meets with my most hearty 
approval. You are wise in giving such large place in 
your work to the school in Coraopolis. Without an 
educated native constituency on which, in ever- 
increasing ratio, the responsibility can be laid, the 
fullest measure of success cannot be realized, or even 
hoped for. I am convinced that the foreign nations in 
which evangelical work is being prosecuted will never 
be evangelized save by well-equipped native evangelists 
and pastors and teachers; and my conviction rests on 
long experience, and, as well, on some failure in my 
earlier mission experience to appreciate the importance 
attaching to the native worker and to his fullest 
equipment for his work. 

"In closing, let me say that I watched very closely 
for any seeming tendency to patronize the native 
worker and the native church. On no single particular, 
perhaps, do so many missionaries make shipwreck as 
on this not altogether unnatural tendency. We believe 
that our institutions and our methods are the best, but 
too marked a tendency to make our feeling promi- 
nent is galling to the native worker and kills his 
initiative, or at least chills it very decidedly and makes 
it impossible for him to put his very best into his work. 
It was, as it always has been, grateful to me to note 



88 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

the cordial relations existing between Dr. Losa, and 
other prominent workers, and yourself. You, very 
wisely, push them to the front, and apparently strive 
to impress on them that the work in hand is primarily 
their work, and that its success depends principally 
on them. 

*Xet me say that I most heartily enjoyed your exhibit 
in the recent meeting of presbytery. It brought back 
to me old memories which are very precious to me, and 
which I would not exchange for anything I can think of. 
It was just the repetition of things I had been through^ 
many, many times, and awakened in me a desire to 
be once more in a work to which I gave so many years; 
and which to my mind is the greatest enterprise which 
can engage the soul, and stimulate the very best that is 
in the soul, the spirit of the man or woman who loves 
the Lord Jesus, and prays intelligently for the coming 
of his Kingdom." 

A report was prepared for the presbytery's exhibit 
from which we have the following: 

"We have in Coraopolis a three-story frame building 
containing thirty-two rooms altogether. We can house 
twenty-two pupils comfortably. There are, living with 
the pupils, a matron and two teachers. ... So far, 
seventy-one girls have graduated. There are seventeen 
in the school at the present time. Four of them will 
graduate next spring (two Slovak, two Bohemian). 
. . . The rest of the girls, thirteen, came from Bohemia, 
every one of them a high-school graduate. Two of 
them are daughters of Presbyterian ministers. . . . 
We have been favored in having exceptionally capable 
and spiritual girls as our missionaries. ... At one 
time we had eighteen missionaries at work. This 
number has been curtailed on account of lack of workers. 

"Almost from the beginning of the foreign work 
under the general supervision of Dr. Losa, until now, 




p. W. SNYDER, D.D. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 89 

the women, first by a joint committee from the presby- 
teries of Allegheny and Pittsburgh, and after the 
union of the two presbyteries, by the Woman's Presby- 
terian Home Mission Society, have cooperated with 
the men in the work. Their efforts have been confined 
very largely to the educational department in connec- 
tion with the Training School located at Coraopolis, 
and to the support of certain women missionaries in 
specified fields of foreign work. . . . This cooperative 
work on the part of the Woman's Home Mission 
Society has been most harmonious and helpful, so 
much so that the monetary support of the work now 
amounts to more than ten thousand dollars a year. 
Too great credit cannot be given to the consecrated 
women who have so loyally supported this work." 
The report gives details as to organization and work of 
the "'Joint Committee on Education" of the trustees 
and the Woman's Society. 

In April, 1921, the Presbytery of Pittsburgh ap- 
pointed Dr. P. W. Snyder as its new Superintendent 
of Missions. Dr. S. J. Fisher, who has had long experi- 
ence in the presbytery, a popular writer for our Church 
newspapers, and the recording secretary for the 
American Hussite Society, has kindly furnished the 
following statement, date J at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
July 23, 1921: 

'Tn regard to your inquiry concerning the action of 
the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, in electing a successor 
to the late Dr. George W. Montgomery, as Superin- 
tendent of Presbyterian Missions, I can heartily say 
that the presbytery feels it has made a wise choice in 
electing Dr. P. W. Snyder as superintendent. This 
mission work has been a constantly enlarging and 
increasingly important work. In diversity of operation, 
in the variety of its workers, and need of larger financing, 
it has grown remarkably through the years. A proper 



90 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

supervision calls for considerable ministerial experience, 
acquaintance with this region and its race problems, 
as well as a strong faith and appreciation of the need 
of the guidance of God. The presbytery feels that in 
Dr. Snyder it has found one who by training and quali- 
ties of mind and heart is well fitted to discharge the 
duties of this important oflSce. His experience as a 
pastor on the South Side, and great success at Home- 
wood, his years of relationship to the problems of 
Church comity and survey of the responsibility of each 
denomination in this city, have prepared him for an 
intelligent study and supervision of this work in this 
region. His acquaintance with the problems of the 
weaker church, and his sympathy with such enter- 
prises and fields, gives the presbytery every reason to 
believe his plans, suggestions, and purposes shall give 
those missions an added value, and a still greater suc- 
cess. As a man of experience, open-minded, and yet 
able to resist unwise or hasty experiments, he can be 
relied upon." 




REV. FRANCIS PRUDKY 



Chapter IV 

ENCOURAGEMENTS 

Rev. Francis Prudky, pastor at Olomouc, Moravia, 
was sent by the Church Missionary Society, an organiza- 
tion which renders assistance to churches beyond the 
bounds of Czechoslovakia, to investigate a number of 
Bohemian colonies; his journeys throw light upon the 
possibilities of evangelizing various regions, populous 
or important, between the Baltic and the Black seas, 
through the work of evangelical Czechoslovaks. 

This story follows closely the recital given to the 
writer by Mr. Prudky during his visits to Pittsburgh 
in the latter months of 1920. Occasionally he observed 
differences in soils, occupations, or as to whether the 
people owned or rented their ground; for such details 
affect Church life in Europe as in America. Especially 
important is the difference of situation for the Bohemian 
colonies in regions dominated by Poles, or those in 
Russian districts; for convenience no distinction of 
Ukrainians as different from Russians will here be 
noted. In Poland he visited four centers of Bohemian 
Reformed churches, the largest church being at Zelov, 
and the largest city being Lodz. He journeyed farther 
among localities in two of the Russian '^Governments," 
those of Volhynia and of EDierson. 

His first journey, in 1908, was through Russian 
Poland. A verst is .66 of a mile, or 1.06 kilometers; 
and some thirty versts from the notorious monastery 
of Czenstochov, where robberies and misdemeanors 
disgusted many in Russia, is Kucov, a village wholly 
Bohemian, of sixty or seventy families, with other 
families in neighboring villages. They had a good 

91 



92 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

church building, destroyed by artillery in the second 
year of the War, but now rebuilt. They have also a 
parochial school and a schoolmaster. Their homes are 
neat, contrasting with Polish villages. They burn peat 
for fuel. The women have an elaborate linen head- 
dress worn only on Sundays. The people are religious, 
loving the gospel. Though it was a week day, all left 
their work and came to church, where Mr. Prudky 
preached twice. The Russian Government made so 
many difficulties for pastors or others in securing 
passports that though they were not far from Moravia, 
they had little communication with it, and they had 
many questions to ask. 

Some twenty-seven miles beyond this place is Zelov, 
near Lask, which is the nearest station to Lodz. The 
Laski family of the nobility was famous in Poland, 
and from it came John Laski, the great Reformer of 
Poland, a friend of Calvin. Zelov, with 5000 inhab- 
itants, is the largest Bohemian colony of Poland. 
Some 2500 are Bohemians, 2000 Jews, the rest Poles 
or Germans. The Bohemians came from German 
Poland in 1815, purchasing a portion of territory from a 
Polish nobleman, the deed of which Mr. Prudky 
examined. The soil is sandy, not rich, and the impor- 
tant occupation is weaving cloth for the Lodz factories. 
The Czar Alexander I helped them to build a fine 
Reformed church, and they also have their parochial 
school. At first all were Reformed adherents, but some 
twenty years ago. Baptists and, later, Congregation- 
alists undertook missions there. The people are great 
Bible readers, and some time ago declined to take 
religious newspapers, saying the Bible was sufficient, 
for it was to them a spelling book, reader, geography, 
history, and their poetical literature. They speak tKe 
same fine dialect of Bohemian that is preserved in the 
Kralicka Bohemian Bible. In the forenoon of Sunday 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 93 

Mr. Prudky found their church full, a larger audience 
than the Reformed could then assemble in Bohemia or 
Moravia, for their congregation numbers five thousand 
souls. Before the War, it was the largest Reformed 
Bohemian congregation in the world. Connected with 
Zelov as headquarters, are some villages. In one of 
these the rent of the forest sustains their school. The 
schoolmaster, with a family of ten children, has a home 
of two rooms containing the kitchen and living room, 
and while there is only one knife for the entire company 
at table, each has a spoon ! 

This tour then leads to Lodz, next to Warsaw, the 
largest town in Poland, growing rapidly before the 
War, with several himdred thousand inhabitants, a 
town of cloth factories. The Reformed churches have 
a thousand souls, originally from Zelov, and a fine 
school. Mr. Prudky was there at the time of the 
revolution. Cossack soldiers escorted through the 
streets a carriage with mails and letters which they 
had captiKcd. Soldiers were in the cars, scrutinizing 
passports closely. Mr. Prudky's impression of the 
people there, in the meetings which he held, was that 
they also were lovers of the Bible and devout. At 
that time they depended for pastoral care upon the 
pastor in Warsaw, a Bohemian, Rev. Mr. Jelen, whose 
death some time afterward was much lamented. A 
cantor or teacher conducted their pulpit services, as 
Mr. Jelen could come only at intervals of some months. 
Congregationalists also hold services in Lodz. Lodz 
was originally German, and the eight or ten Lutheran 
churches there at first used the German language. 
Now they all use the Polish language. It is singular 
that German statesmen failed so signally to Germanize 
Posen's Poles, while these Germans of Russian Poland 
have been Polonized. ^ 

The last community visited in Poland was Zyrardow, 



94 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

between Lodz and Warsaw. Here are almost ten thou- 
sand people, whose homes, factories, churches, the 
cemetery with its sections, the entire place, all belongs 
to one German mill owner. He built and owns the 
Bohemian Reformed Church, as he does all the others 
in the town. It is a town of cloth factories. The 
Reformed number some six hundred souls, supplied by 
a cantor, with occasional visits from the pastor in 
Warsaw, Mr. Jelen, who was at that time superin- 
tendent of the synod. On the occasion of Mr. Prudky's 
visit, the town was full of soldiers who were keeping 
order during a strike. 

There was no Bohemian Reformed Church in War- 
saw, the capital of Poland, but a fine Gothic Reformed 
Church there. The superintendent of the synod. 
Rev. Semadeni, and the pastor of this Church, Rev. 
Skierski, were both ardently patriotic Poles. The four 
centers above mentioned are all that the Bohemian 
Reformed Church has in Poland; and all these are 
descendants from emigrants who left Bohemia after 
the disastrous battle of the White Mountain. 

It was a rare scene that occurred at the time when 
Mr. Prudky was present in the Synod of Vilna. There 
he was, a Bohemian Reformed leader, listening to dis- 
cussions of Polish Reformed leaders, both ministers 
and laymen, the presiding officer being a Polish noble- 
man. He conferred with them as to the difficulties of 
Bohemian Reformed churches in their Polish districts. 
In his tours he also made the acquaintance of Polish 
evangelical leaders in their Synod of Warsaw. It is 
doubtful whether any other representatives of the 
Polish and Bohemian peoples could be found who 
could hold conferences in so Christian and fraternal a 
manner as such evangelical men. The chariot of the 
gospel might speed victoriously among Slav peoples, 
when their watchmen see thus eye to eye. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 95 

As he passed on into Russian regions, in the two 
Governments of Volhynia and Kherson, holding meet- 
ings, he learned the conditions of the people, their 
difficulties, their needs. Details, some of which are 
recited elsewhere, show the attitude of the Russian 
authorities of that period toward these Reformed 
churches. The primitive houses built by Slav farmers, 
in some places with walls of earth and straw, can also 
be found in America. Very diiSferent conditions obtain 
in German Silesia, now a part of Poland, where the 
Bohemians of the younger generation have to some 
extent been Germanized. A singular contrast is that 
many German Lutherans in Poland have been Polon- 
ized. A still different situation appeared in districts 
now belonging to Jugoslavia, the territories of Croatia 
and Slavonia. In reports of such tours, to find churches 
in a low state, pastorless for years, hampered by 
unfriendly officials and oppressive governments, should 
not abate Christian hope and zeal. ''The king's heart 
is in the hand of the Lord." And the Lord of the 
harvest hears the prayer that he himself has inspired, 
and raises up the laborers that are needed. All these 
moral wastes can be transformed into spiritual flocks 
of men. And when devout households are found, far 
from churches, who instruct their children in the Bible 
and catechism and eagerly profit by a minister's visit, 
this should have a place in the same narrative which 
describes centers with their hundreds or their thou- 
sands of Church members. Moreover, to see a convert 
from America whose life was transformed from being 
brutal and drunken become a kind Christian husband, 
an earnest reader of the Bible, who helped to gather 
scattered families into a congregation and was serving 
as a church treasurer when Mr. Prudky found him, is 
good news from a far country, as cold water to a thirsty 
soul. 



96 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Since the Reformation no Slav land has afforded 
such encouragement for evangelical work as Czecho- 
slovakia, after the armistice was signed. Thereupon, 
losing no time, Bohemian Reformed and Lutheran 
Churches, whose separation had been an arbitrary- 
enforcement of outsiders, united as the "Evangelical 
Church of Czech Brethren," with a constituency of 
about two hundred thousand; and they cultivate close 
acquaintance with about five hundred thousand Slovak 
evangelicals. Beholding many open doors, they are 
"like them that dream." A rapid survey of the region 
where Mr. Prudky labors, in North Moravia, with 
Olomouc as headquarters, is demonstrative for all of 
Czechoslovakia . 

Moravska Ostrava has been growing like a lesser 
Pittsburgh into an important manufacturing center. 
For some time in 1904 Mr. Prudky visited the place 
once in two months, gathering a small company of 
worshipers. An evangelical church is there, made up 
of Germans and of Polish Lutherans. These Poles, 
however, differ somewhat in dialect and disposition 
from other Poles, preferring to be classed as "Mora- 
vians," and they readily send their children to Bohemian 
schools. In 1920 the Bohemian Reformed congrega- 
tion, which had increased to nearly three hundred 
souls, was augmented to three thousand souls, by the 
union of Bohemian Lutheran and Reformed congrega- 
tions. Germans naturally stood aloof from such a 
union; and the Poles had no more control in the church 
which had been erected partly by their contributions. 
To use that church for their services, this congregation 
must pay a goodly rent. The Poles having no Bohemian 
traditions, being in a transition state, scarcely know 
where they are ecclesiastically; and it is an urgent 
problem to interest them in the erection of another 
building, when the building that they formerly had 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 97 

seemed to be the last contribution they needed to make. 
They are mostly miners, and the community is the 
most important field for development now in Czecho- 
slovakia. 

The surroundings of Olomouc make a territory of 
about 4000 square miles with haK a million people. 
It is a district that contains some of the best soil in 
Moravia. Pferov, since Mr. Prudky's visit to America, 
has become a separate charge, since Rev. C. A. Chval, 
of Pittsbiu'gh Presbytery, toward the close of 1920 
went there as pastor, his support being assured through 
funds raised by Drs. Montgomery and Losa. It is 
headquarters for several other communities. A neat 
church building was erected here in 1908. It is a 
historical place, the birthplace of Blahoslav, who died in 
1571. His excellent translation of the New Testament 
from the Greek was afterwards, with minor revision, in- 
corporated into the Kralicka Bible, and he was the author 
of many hymns and religious works. Here, too, is still 
shown the Gymnasium where for four years, 1614-1618, 
Comenius was the principal. A Bohemian Reformed 
statesman of that locality, Karel ze Zerotina, went into 
voluntary exile after 1620, but was allowed to revisit 
his estates, and died during such a visit. In a neigh- 
boring village, Hranice, a former chapel of the Bohe- 
mian Brethren still exists, now used as a warehouse. 

Another important locality, which should be a 
separate charge, is Prostejov, where there are many 
workmen. It has had services on alternate Sunday 
afternoons, with no church building, in a place of 
worship available only on Sundays. Mr. Prudky's 
assistant minister, Rev. Sedy, had his headquarters 
in Svebohov, afterwards changed to Hrabova, and the 
story of its origin as told by a Bohemian coworker in 
Germany so interested the hearers that a society was 
formed to provide the salary for the worker there. 



98 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Since the War, this support has been withdrawn, and 
the support must be furnished by Bohemians. A 
century ago, a Bohemian Cathohc attended a church 
festival in Prague and obtained a Bible. He gathered 
his friends, and the reading of this Bible together led 
to the creation of the Reformed Church at Svebohov. 
Intolerable persecutions hindered them. It was found 
that they did not have the certificates, always required, 
that they had been to the confessional. ''Our certifi- 
cates," they said, "are our consciences." To be recog- 
nized as Protestants, they must affirm their purpose to 
become such in ''examinations," for six weeks. By a 
subterfuge the hours in a period of six weeks were 
counted, and this ingenious inquisition extended for a 
year or more, with every other annoyance added that 
could be invented. Yet by 1850 this Reformed group 
numbered seventy souls. They were allowed to retain 
their own cemetery, and to build a mausoleum, and 
this served as their place of worship until more tolera- 
tion was granted. The assistant holds services in 
Zab?eh, where JiH Strejc was born, a writer of Bohemian 
metrical psalms. Zabfeh has two villages, also Mirov 
in its circuit, where there is a state prison that should 
be regularly visited. Mr. Prudky visited eight places 
to catechize the children, his assistant visited six more, 
and a schoolmaster cared for another locality. There 
are also devoted women workers and young people 
who help in Sunday schools, in church support, and in 
the care of the poor. ^ 

In Hrabova, during July, 1921, Mr. Sedy wel- 
comed his first confirmation class of twelve children 
who had been instructed there, and on the same occa- 
sion received a hundred adults as Church members. 
In describing the work, he emphatically declares that 
our Board of Publication, by its picture cards and its 
Bohemian papers for children and for adults, has 




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THE COMING OF THE SLAV 99 

rendered invaluable service. "I do not know what 
could be done without your help; not half of what has 
been accomplished," he writes to Dr. Losa. And he 
mentions, as in almost every letter, a service in a new 
locality. Another pastor made a tour in what may be 
called "Moravian" Slovakia, where the dialect, in one 
Moravian village after another, increasingly resembles 
the Slovak. Often the attendance in the places men- 
tioned was two hundred, or three hundred, with in- 
stances of five hundred, nine hundred, a thousand, 
once fifteen hundred. In a hall where this instance 
occurred, of nine hundred present, he discoursed for 
an hour. But when he finished, all remained seated, 
and a voice requested, "Please continue." But he was 
too weary, and had to consider the care of his voice, in 
those frequent meetings; yet such behavior and re- 
quests from audiences are not uncommon. Formerly, 
Bohemians would discuss anything but religion. Now, 
the news is reiterated, that in trains and everywhere, 
groups soon form that plunge into religious discussions, 
and audiences that would not listen to discourses on 
politics or socialism will crowd any auditorium to hear 
about Huss and the gospel. The pressure increases, 
urging Presbyterian Bohemian ministers in America, 
even for limited periods, to return to Czechoslovakia; 
and it is the exception, proving the rule, that when 
such men can be spared, and means provided, those 
who are already qualified, but no other Americans, 
could well be sent to relieve the emergency. 

Here, then, should be several separate charges in 
Mr. Prudky's former field. He dedicated a new church 
building, a beautiful structure, in July, 1920. Soon 
after he made his tour in America. When he returned 
home, he found most of his congregation strangers to 
him, for the new accessions, largely in his absence, 
a total of over three hundred for that year, made a 



100 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

new situation. Moreover, in the opening months of 
1921, he welcomed two hundred more, so that his 
new church was already too small. His assistant's 
congregation grew from eighty members to eight 
hundred; and Mr. Chval, arriving in January, 1921, 
soon welcomed two hundred members. Moreover, 
Mr. Prudky had visited other localities, where he 
had lectured on John Huss. For Bohemian audi- 
ences, so long misled by blind guides, this is the best, 
most congenial first lesson in gospel instruction. If 
twenty qualified pastors were suddenly to appear, he 
could promptly assemble audiences similar to those he 
has addressed, in strongly Catholic neighborhoods, now 
friendly to the gospel. New charges can be formed in 
the same way as those now being cultivated. In 
southern Moravia is Uhersky Brod, one of the reputed 
birthplaces of Comenius, also Uhersky Hradiste, with 
similar needs and promise; likewise, in southern 
Bohemia, Budejovice (Budweis). Rev. Krenek, of 
the Central West Presbytery, Bohemian, left the 
United States for an evangelistic tour in Czechoslovakia 
and everywhere was greeted by great audiences, often 
in the open air. Somewhat later. Rev. Dobias, of 
the Southwest Bohemian Presbytery in Texas, made 
a visit of nine months in a region of Czechoslovakia, 
of western Bohemia, at Domazlice, where a Protestant 
was a rarity. Two hundred members he found there, 
but when he returned to this country at the end of that 
visit, he had increased that number to three thousand! 
In one week delegations from fifteen villages of the 
vicinity visited him, asking him to appoint services in 
their towns. 

Another Bohemian minister, in the fall of 1920, went 
from America to that land to engage in Y. M. C. A. work. 
He wrote that on March 6, 1921, he preached in Kralo- 
vice; where there had not been a Protestant previous 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 101 

to January, 1921. After his sermon seventy-nine new 
members joined the newly organized Church. There 
were five hundred in the audience; the same Sunday, 
he preached in two other towns under similar condi- 
tions. In this same season, it was reported that in 
Zizkov, a suburb of Prague, 5000 persons had united 
with the evangelical Church. Also, in Hrabova there 
were four hundred Protestants, gaming about ten new 
members a week, where a year before there were prac- 
tically none. At the meeting of the Synod of the 
"Czech Brethren" in February, 1921, the pastor of the 
Pilsen Church stated that in and around Pilsen, there 
were some 13,000 accessions to his Church, enough 
for ten churches, or enough to make a new seniorat, 
or presbytery; while he was the only pastor available 
for them ! Three times on Sunday the Pilsen Church 
was emptied for different audiences. So, in Brno (Briinn), 
the capital of Moravia, two services were held in its 
church each Sunday morning, for the multitude had 
thus to be accommodated; and like arrangements are 
spreading elsewhere. 

These details may suflSce to indicate a movement 
unexampled in Europe for centuries. The Czechoslovak 
census of February,1921, adds its own testimony. The 
population is over thirteen million. The Evangelicals 
number about 1,500,000; ''without Confession," or 
churchless, 4,500,000. Besides, parallel with the evan- 
gelical movement is one of the ''National" Bohemian 
Church. Some 142 priests petitioned for mass in the 
vernacular, the circulation of the Bible, the marriage 
of priests. They were excommunicated; called "generals 
without an army." The Evangelicals welcomed them, 
believing that they were bound for an evangelical goal. 
And this census indicates that their adherents are 
800,000! For Bohemia and Moravia, where Rome had 
claimed ninety-eight per cent, it seems that it could 



102 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

retain only about fifty per cent; besides, these seces- 
sions from its ranks continue. 

Dr. Herben, one of the foremost of journahsts, 
wrote in the largest paper of Czechoslovakia: *'Easter 
week in the rural districts of Bohemia and Moravia 
was absolutely a religious demonstration. Whole 
towns and villages were looking for some one to come 
and teach them what to do. Had there been enough 
preachers and teachers in the Evangelical Church of 
the Czech Brethren, whole districts would have been 
celebrating Easter according to the Protestant rites, 
entirely outside of the Roman Catholic Church. Such 
is the attitude and such is the tendency of the people.'' 

A religious paper of Bohemia in 1921 stated that in a 
year's time or less a hundred new preaching stations 
had been established in Bohemia alone, some of them 
already surpassing in numbers and zeal the older, self- 
supporting churches; and that every Sunday fifty 
ministers and laymen are endeavoring to supply these 
points, though not able to serve half the localities that 
call for the gospel. The movement has been mostly 
among the workingmen and the middle class; but is 
winning its way also among intellectual, cultured 
leaders. 

As this book goes to press, the news comes that 
Rev. Kenneth D. Miller, Associate Director of City 
and Immigrant Work for the Presbyterian Board of 
Home Missions, New York City, has undertaken a tour 
of investigation in Czechoslovakia and some adjacent 
countries. Some years ago he received an appointment 
to one of the fellowships provided by the Board, en- 
abling him to spend some time in Bohemia, where he 
became proficient in the language. His service later 
for the Board was varied by work for the Y. M. C. A. 
among Czechoslovak troops in Siberia. He can readily 
get the viewpoint of Czechoslovak leaders. Arrange- 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 103 

ments are progressing also to send two or more Bohe- 
mian ministers from America to Czechoslovakia. Dr. 
Losa's correspondence reveals further improvement in 
the organization of the '^National" or Czechoslovak 
Church, whose priests often suffer hardship, as no pro- 
vision has been made for their salaries since they left 
the Catholic Church. The latest indications are that 
a hundred thousand Bibles may not supply the present 
demand for them in Czechoslovakia. Owing to the 
increased cost of these, America ought to help in pro- 
viding them. 

The foregoing pages describe a movement in Bohemia 
and Moravia. But in Slovakia a similar need has been 
recently discovered, which may lead to important de- 
velopments. 

In Slovakia the masses have been either Romish or 
Lutheran; and leaders of the Bohemian Reformed 
churches scarcely knew of the existence of any Slovak 
Calvinists. When Mr. Prudky was in America he met 
some of them, who asked him to visit their brethren in 
Slovakia. In the summer of 1921 two delegations of 
Bohemians did so, and found twenty thousand of them 
in a fertile plain, having views of the Carpathians to 
the north, a region between Kosice and Uzhorod, a 
region that suffered in the wars, the Great War, and 
the later war between the Bohemians and the Reds. 
Whole cemeteries were the evidence. Magyar leaders 
gave warning of these visitors, wolves in sheep's 
clothing, as they said; or as a teacher declared, they 
were not Calvinists but Hussites, not praying to God 
but to Huss! But their way was prepared by Rev. 
John Sirny, who had charge of the Presbyterian Slovak 
Church at Monessen, Pennsylvania, and who was 
visiting Slovakia. Their audiences welcomed services, 
sometimes Communion services, in their own tongue. 
Their dialect was interesting. ''Thy speech bewray- 



104 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

eth thee," is a principle of linguistic science. And 
here were Slovaks, whose salutations, various accents, 
and phrases, were different from those of western 
Slovaks, sometimes purely Bohemian, suggesting plausi- 
bly that they were descendants of Bohemian exiles 
driven out by persecutions centuries ago. 

Magyar kultur, religious and otherwise, said Mr. 
Prudky in his letter to Dr. Losa, was plainly visible, 
for the school, church, magistrates, army, all aimed at 
the obliteration of Slovak self-consciousness, at their 
serfdom, at their separation from Bohemians. Their 
Calvinism was a confessionalism, to emphasize a 
separation from Slovak Lutherans, formal rather than 
spiritual. Their very orthography was Magyarized, so 
as to make it difl&cult for them to read the writings of 
Slovaks or Bohemians. Yet the children who memor- 
ized catechisms in Magyar parochial schools, or the 
people who heard sermons in that tongue, understood 
it no better than Latin. The visitation of twenty-three 
churches by these brethren supplied them with abun- 
dant evidence as to such facts. The Magyar Reformed 
Church aims at "autonomy" for them, which means 
their domination by Magyar bishops and pastors. 
These leaders even choose the delegates for their 
ecclesiastical gathering, the ''Conventus"; their pastors 
also are appointed, the people having no opportunities 
of electing them. 

The results of this tyranny are deplorable. It is not 
strange that the people sometimes call themselves 
"Magyars" though they do not know that language. 
They have been as serfs, looking up to Magyars as 
aristocrats, so that they do not comprehend true 
liberty. Since the Czechoslovak Republic was estab- 
lished, the Calvinistic Magyar parochial schools have 
been closed, and the children are without instruction. 
There is no Slovak Bible with Magyar orthography, 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 105 

and the people are without Bibles. They are not apt 
to read anything, and drift into an unthinking habit, 
so that some Calvinists voted for the clerical party! 
They have learned to emphasize forms only; they have 
superstitions, even prayers for the dead, sometimes 
paying for masses in Catholic churches. Their pastors 
have their oAvn farms, their tithes, their fees for 
baptisms, or other functions, but no salary otherwise. 
Thus the people have no idea of benevolence and its 
contributions, and their relations with ministers are 
pitiable. These have been as lords over God's heritage; 
the people cannot be born, or live, or die, without 
these oflSicials, mere ceremonialists, and they must be 
paid. Love and confidence are absent; and increasingly, 
many people refuse services that formerly were volun- 
tarily rendered. The people make merit by adorning 
profusely the pulpit and table with embroidery and 
artificial flowers, and the long farewells for the dead at 
funerals are aids to superstition. 

Mr. Prudky has some counsels for this situation. 
Communications with Czech Brethren having thus 
begun, should be continued. Until the separation of 
Church and State is complete, the government should 
not recognize pastors who do not understand the 
language of their people. Spiritual teachers are needed 
for the schools, and if they are not available, even 
State schools are preferable to parochial schools under 
a Magyar regime. Good schools are a necessity. Bibles 
are a necessity, for a true evangelization; and a good 
colporteur, going from hut to hut, might introduce a 
new era. Literature easily understood is a necessity. 
A little paper, printed at first in Magyar orthography, 
changing slowly to Slovak, and containing some politi- 
cal or agricultural articles, would do good. Finally, a 
Slovak seniorat or presbytery is a necessity. Stipends 
and subsidies should be provided for Slovak students 



106 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

for the ministry, and only efficient, spiritual men should 
work in Slovakia. 

This unique situation in Bohemia, Moravia, and 
Slovakia warrants the hope that in the future, and 
that not distant, a hundred qualified pastors, and then, 
if the Holy Spirit be poured out, a thousand, may not 
suffice for the flocks that need spiritual care in Czecho- 
slovakia, requiring many problems of training, instruc- 
ting, organizing the workers and the people. God 
grant that America may do her part in this time of 
harvest! 

The Czechoslovak Review of Chicago published the 
Constitution of Czechoslovakia. Article 106 says that 
"All inhabitants of the Czechoslovak Republic enjoy, 
equally with the citizens of the Republic, in its terri- 
tory full and complete protection without regard to race 
or religion." But as Washington's character and influ- 
ence was a powerful guarantee for the terms of the 
American Constitution when it was regarded as an un- 
tried experiment, so the influence of Thomas Garrigue 
Masaryk, the first President, elected for life in 
Czechoslovakia, is a fortunate asset for the stability 
and progress of that promising country. He was born 
March 7, 1850, in South Moravia. He had struggles 
with poverty in getting his education, in the grammar 
school of Brno, capital of Moravia, in the University of 
Vienna, and later in the University of Leipsic. In one 
of his journeys in Germany and Russia, he met Miss 
Charlotte Garrigue, an American lady, who became his 
wife. In 1879 he established himself as a lecturer in phi- 
losophy at the University of Vienna; and when the Uni- 
versity of Prague was divided into a German and a Czech 
University, he was transferred to this new Czech insti- 
tution. A significant fact, not always mentioned, was 
that in the course of these activities, though born a 
Catholic, he united with the Reformed Bohemian 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 107 

Church. In 1891-1893, he served as a deputy in the 
Austrian Parhament, coming to the front rank as a 
pohtical leader, patriotic, honest, and fearless. His 
eyes were opened to the hopeless corruption of Austria, 
and after leaving Parliament he continued to write 
and to advocate reforms. In various questions he 
took the unpopular side, facing storms of opposition, 
sometimes from powerful clerical organizations, yet 
finally winning his case. He was reelected to Parlia- 
ment in 1907, and exposed the forgeries by which the 
Austrian authorities tried to implicate Serbia in a 
conspiracy, and by which in the Agram political trials 
fifty Jugoslav youths were condemned to death, but 
rescued by Masaryk's eflForts. The War broke out while 
he was on important journeys. But we might well 
let him tell his story as he did in his first presidential 
message to the National Assembly, in the ancient 
royal castle of Prague, in December, 1918: 

'T myseK saw clearly that I could not and must not 
remain in the service of Austria-Hungary. It is true 
that at first I hesitated to act; I felt the tremendous 
responsibility. I counted the cost of defeat — but our 
soldiers, refusing to serve, and surrendering to the 
Allies, the criminal execution of our men who rejoiced 
at the promises of the Russian commander, the entire 
machinery of Vienna and Budapest barbarity, forced 
me to a decision." He mentions his journeys, seeking 
information, in Vienna, Holland, Germany. "In the 
middle of December, 1914, I departed for Italy, then 
still neutral, and from there to Switzerland. I had 
hoped to return once more to Prague and communicate 
the information gained by me, but it was no longer 
possible. In the fall of 1915 I proceeded to London, 
whence I made frequent trips to Pari*.'* In London 
he was welcomed, and was appointed a professor 
at King's College. Moreovw, he was then direct- 



108 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

ing the whole Czechoslovak movement in Russia, 
America, and France. When the Russian revolution 
broke out, he went, at a critical time, to Russia, and 
it was due to him that the Czechoslovak army was 
organized. ''In May, 1917, I had to go to Russia; 
from Russia I departed early in March by way of 
Siberia to Japan, through Japan to the United States, 
and after seven months' residence there I returned at 
the call of our government after a lapse of four years 
as the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic. 
. . . The history of our army in Russia is the history 
of Russia during the War. Kerensky at first was against 
us, until he found out that his offensive was to a large 
extent carried out by our three regiments, and that 
our boys covered the fatal flight of the Russian army. 
After many attempts we finally managed to organize 
an army corps; and I can say without boasting that 
organizing this army during the anarchy and the 
complete break-up of the Russian army is the best 
testimony to the maturity not merely of our boys, but 
of the whole nation, for 100,000 men is enough to 
represent a nation. . . . Our army fighting on three 
fronts won our liberty for us." He then recounts the 
steps by which the Allies recognized Czechoslovakia, 
saying, 'Tt is natural that recognition by England 
and the United States, the greatest Allied Powers, 
strengthened us greatly, as the behavior of the enemies 
made plain. . . . Bismarck said that the master of 
Bohemia is the master of Europe. He described thus 
in his own way the special world significance of our 
nation. We are the westernmost Slav branch in the 
center of Europe, and we successfully helped to balk 
the German push toward the east. Our victory is 
likewise the victory of the other small nations menaced 
by Germany and Austria." He then shows the impor- 
tance of cultivating harmonious relations with sur- 



THE COMING OP THE SLAV 109 

rounding nations, and with a renewed Russia. When 
he discussed the Magyars, he tactfully changed from 
the Bohemian to the Slovak dialect. One writer in the 
Boliemian Review, commemorating his seventieth 
birthday, speaks of the love and reverence of the nation 
for him: *'The Czechoslovak movement for inde- 
pendence, its struggles and final victory, were not 
possible without Masaryk." Accordingly it means 
much that such a man, identified with the Reformed 
Church, began this historic message with a quotation 
from the famous educator and reformer, a well-known 
prophecy of John Amos Comenius: ''O Bohemian 
people, I trust in God, that when the tempest of his 
wrath brought upon our heads for our sins, will have 
passed away, the reign of thy cause will again be 
restored." 

The evangelization of Slavdom can be furthered by 
a plan so simple that it is within the reach of every 
American Church and Christian. It would be an 
unspeakable boon, both to America and to Slavdom, 
if the Monthly Concert, a truly concerted movement 
among Presbyterians, were to restore and retain 
Czechoslovakia or Slavdom in its list of topics. Every 
month these topics receive regular discussions, for 
thousands of readers, in monthly or weekly Presby- 
terian periodicals throughout America, and the 
missionary societies, young people's meetings, mid- 
week services, echo and emphasize them. But for 
many years, up to 1920, Slavdom has been excluded 
from this sphere of blessing. Yet this is a sad departure 
from the former ideals of our fathers. Every year, 
their Monthly Concert program included "papal 
Europe," and while Italy and France received more 
attention, being more familiar, we may refer to the 
former Presbyterian magazine, the Foreign Mission- 
ary, for November, 1883, where there is a brief 



no THE COMING OP THE SLAV 

quotation concerning the history and spiritual needs 
of Bohemia and Moravia. This spiritual sympathy, 
not only for this part but for all the rest of Slavdom, 
is greatly needed now. This magazine for September, 
1879, quoted the report of a previous General Assembly 
as follows: "Believing that an instrumentality which, 
in the history of our Church, has been so signally blessed, 
may be yet made a means of blessing to the whole world, 
your committee call the attention of ministers and 
elders to the paramount importance of making more 
efficient the monthly meeting of prayer for missions 
where it is observed, and of reviving it where it is 
fallen into disuse." 

The Foreign Missionary for August, 1886, gives a 
table of statistics of organizations of Reformed churches 
on the Continent, in Bohemia, France, Italy, Belgium, 
et cetera, also another table showing the contributions 
sent to these Reformed churches from the Presbyterian 
churches of Scotland, England, and Ireland. '*The 
above," it adds, "does not tell the whole story. Many 
special missions are aided from Scotland and England. 
. . . Best of all, a number of students have been 
brought from the countries of Austria, educated for 
the ministry in Scotch Theological halls, and sent back 
to their homes. The Reformed churches in papal lands 
have solid ground upon which to appeal to American 
Presbyterians. *Their debtors we are.' Our spiritual 
and temporal prosperity depend upon principles for 
which their earlier generations contended. It is but 
due return for us now to help them back to temporal 
and spiritual vigor. The five thousand dollars con- 
tributed to them from the treasury of our Presby- 
terian Foreign Board last year might well be multi- 
plied tenfold." Sad to say, for many years, all such 
advertisement or regular news and discussions of 
Bohemia, now in Czechoslovakia, or of Slavdom, as 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 111 

well as of Latin Europe, have disappeared from Pres- 
byterian papers in the United States, such publications 
now being sporadic, irregular; and such contributions 
are no longer reported by our Foreign Board. These 
probably never were part of a regular budget; yet 
special gifts, due largely to these publications, no 
doubt, have always been forwarded according to desig- 
nations by donors.* 

The Presbyterian denominations of this country 
should now consider anew their spiritual responsibility 
for Slavdom. These Monthly Concert programs 
would be enriched, varied, made more adequate, if 
Czechoslovakia or Slavdom were included. A former 
secretary of the Presbyterian Foreign Board was of the 
opinion that whatever the topic for a monthly mission- 
ary meeting, the whole world as the field for evangeliza- 
tion should be the real theme. A multitude of states- 
men have perceived that no suflScient discussion of 
world powers could be had if Slavdom were omitted. 
And shall the children of this world be **in their genera- 
tion wiser than the children of light"? 

The history of the Monthly Concert of Prayer for 
Missions, or as it has sometimes been expressed, of a 
"Concert of Prayer for the Conversion of the World," 
has never been fully recorded. We may note two 
landmarks in such a blessed history : First, a discourse, 
making nearly two hundred pages, of Jonathan 
Edwards, America's greatest theologian. This was 
"An Humble Attempt To Promote Explicit Agreement 
and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary 
Prayer For the Revival of Religion and the Advance- 
ment of Christ's Kingdom on Earth." His text was 
Zech. 8:20-22: 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts; It 
shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, 
and the inhabitants of many cities; and the inhabitants 

*The recent news is welcome, that our Foreign Board will include Czechoslovakia 
and other countries of Europe in its topics, as of yore. 



112 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

of one city shall go to another, saying. Let us go speedily 
to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts : 
I will go also. Yea, many peoples and strong nations 
shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and 
to pray before the Lord." He quoted a number of 
other prophecies, and showed that they were never 
fulfilled before the coming of Christ, and hence must 
refer to the glory and enlargement of the Christian 
Church. This text shows how this advancement 
should be introduced: "By great Multitudes in different 
Towns and Countries taking up a joint Resolution, 
. . ., that they will, by united and extraordinary 
Prayer, seek to God that he would come and manifest 
himself, and grant the Tokens and Fruits of his gracious 
Presence. . . . This Disposition to . . . Prayer, 
and Union in it, will gradually spread more and more, 
and increase to greater Degrees; with which at length 
will gradually be introduced a Revival of Religion. 
. . . In this Manner Religion shall be propagated, 
till the Awakening reaches those that are in the highest 
Stations, and 'till whole Nations be awaken'd, and there 
shall be at length an Accession of many of the chief 
Nations of the World to the Church of God." 

He then discusses a memorial that had been sent 
from Scotland to America, "for continuing a Concert 
for Prayer, first entered into in the Year 1744." A 
number of Scottish ministers had made an agreement 
to observe some times for special prayer, and to con- 
tinue this for two years. At the expiration of the time, 
this memorial was published, and some hundreds of 
copies sent to America, urging that the arrangement be 
continued and extended. 

The second part of this discourse offered "to Con- 
sideration some Things, which may induce the People 
of God to comply with the Proposal and Request." 
This master mind then marshaled arguments, as if 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 113 

burdened with a message of high import. He showed 
that many prophecies of the future glories of the Church 
are yet unfulfilled, surely worth praying for. He had a 
chapter on what Christ did and suffered to obtain that 
day. "Surely his Disciples . . . should also . . . 
be much and earnest in Prayer for it." Of all the 
encouragements to this duty, signifying importunity 
in prayer, he knew of nothing in the Bible so striking 
as Isa. 62 :dy 7: "Keep not silence, and give him no 
rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a 
praise in the earth." Throughout the Bible, especially 
the psalms, no other prayers are so frequent as those 
for the advancement of the Church, God's Kingdom of 
grace on earth. After urging the special needs of that 
time, in the eighteenth century, and the advantages of 
such a union of Christians, he refuted some objections 
and in conclusion quoted Isa. 25 : 9: "It shall be said 
in that day, Lo, this is our God; ... we will . . . 
rejoice in his salvation." 

Another publication, a book of about a hundred 
small pages, by Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, New 
Jersey, appeared in 1832, "Letters on the Observance 
of the Monthly Concert in Prayer: Addressed to the 
Members of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States." He, too, discussed the necessity of prayer, 
and of intercession, and the blessedness of union with 
others in this. He referred to the origin of the Monthly 
Concert in the Church of Scotland about a hundred 
years before, and how Edwards, "then of Northampton, 
in Massachusetts, labored with no small diligence and 
zeal to . . . promote the plan." In 1784, this 
appointment was made monthly, on the first Monday 
evening of each month. The Presbyterian General 
Assembly in 1830 issued a pastoral letter calling atten- 
tion to this subject. A few years later, it recom- 
mended a change to the first Sunday afternoon in 



114 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

every month for the churches that might find it con- 
venient. Dr. Miller fervently pleaded for more mission- 
ary zeal in this matter. "Again I say to every minister, 
every member, and every well-wisher of our Zion, 
Awake! Awake! Pray and labor without ceasing until 
there shall be a general and united movement of our 
whole Church to carry the glorious gospel to every 
kindred and people and nation and tongue; until the 
knowledge and glory of the Lord shall cover the earth 
as the waters fill the sea, Amen!'* 

The Presbyterian Church has followed in its missions 
a different plan from that of some other denominations, 
since it never has sent missionaries to Europe. Dr. 
Ferdinand Cisaf, superintendent for the Reformed 
Church in Moravia, emphatically approved this plan 
in his article on "Zo5 von Romf ("Away from Rome!") 
in the Presbyterian and Reformed Review, October, 
1901: "Perhaps only Presbyterians have the better 
understanding of the matter that to strengthen the 
Continental Protestant Churches is the safest way to 
evangelize Catholic Europe." Some years ago the 
question was raised in the General Assembly whether 
it might be well to change this plan, and the matter 
was finally referred to the Board of Foreign Missions; 
its report in part is as follows (Minutes of the General 
Assembly, 1909, p. 341): 

"I. That it is inexpedient at the present time for 
the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church in the U. S. A. to establish Foreign Missions 
on the Continent of Europe, for the following reasons: 

"(a) The Presbyterian Church has already more 
foreign missionary responsibilities than it is dis- 
charging. (6) The primary responsibility for work in 
Europe rests upon the Evangelical Churches of Great 
Britain and the Continent, which have recognized this 
obligation, and which in turn leave the vast work to 



THE COMING OP THE SLAV 115 

be done on the western hemisphere to the American 
and Canadian Churches, (c) The estabhshment of 
Foreign Missions in Europe by the American Churches 
is regarded on the Continent and Great Britain as an 
unwise and harmful pohcy. 

*TI. But there is need of friendly help in behalf of 
the Reformed Churches on the Continent, and the 
Evangelical Churches of Great Britain and America 
should show a large sympathy for their brethren in the 
Continental countries. The Board, however, cannot 
make any provision for such help out of its woefully 
inadequate income; but it is cordially ready to receive 
and forward any special designated gifts for these 
churches and their work, provided that the agents to 
whom the money is to be sent and the objects of work 
to which it is to be devoted are officially authorized by 
the highest ecclesiastical courts of the Churches con- 
cerned, and approved by the General Secretary and 
Executive Committee of the Presbyterian Alliance. 
In acting thus for those interested, the Board could not 
assume any responsibility of accounting for the receipt 
of funds and transmitting them to the authorized 
agent." 

To propose resolutions of sympathy in the General 
Assembly for the Reformed Churches of Czecho- 
slovakia, and then do nothing, is like saying, "Depart 
in peace, be ye warmed and filled," notwithstanding the 
fact that urgent needs are unsupplied. Organizations 
were formed some years ago, which interested numbers 
of Presbyterians, to help Reformed Churches of France 
and Belgium, also Waldensian societies to assist the 
Waldensians of Italy. A sensible and practical plan 
for helping the Reformed Churches of Czechoslovakia 
has been proposed by Dr. W. L. McEwan, of Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania, and put into effect by his organ- 
ization of "The American Hussite Society." If thou- 



116 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

sands of Presbyterians throughout the United States 
were to become members and contributors toward this 
organization, it would go farther than ever to supply 
the needs of Slav saints, and occasion many thanks- 
givings to God. 

Summary 

The two things here to be emphasized are the Amer- 
ican Hussite Society and the Monthly Concert of 
Prayer for Missions. The Hussite Society is admirably 
adapted to be the organ for all the Presbyterian and 
Reformed Churches of America in obtaining funds for 
Czechoslovakia. The true policy for all these denom- 
inations must be to send no American missionaries to 
Europe, but to send funds to aid our Reformed brethren 
there. The need for this is formally recognized, but in 
practice such contributions are difficult to secure, in 
the face of the increasing regular budgets of all churches. 
Hence the need for this organization. Moreover, the 
Monthly Concert of Prayer, including Czechoslovakia 
in its topics, will be a powerful help, making its appeal 
to thousands, through Church papers and missionary 
organizations. Thus there will be a more extensive 
publication of the great and growing importance of 
Slav countries, and the need of more evangelical work 
in them, including colportage and the training of a host 
of missionaries. 

"Pray ye . . . the Lord of the harvest, that he 
will send forth laborers into his harvest." "If thou 
forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and 
those that are ready to be slain; if thou say est, Behold, 
we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the 
heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth 
not he know it? and shall not he render to every 
man according to his works?" We ourselves, the 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 117 

whole Church to-day, need the same spirit as that 
of Samuel, when he spoke to Israel: ''Moreover 
as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the 
Lord in ceasing to pray for you." 

Supplement 

A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 

McLanahan: "Our People of Foreign Speech." 

Grose: ''Aliens or Americans?" 

Count von Liitzow: "Bohemia: An Historical Sketch." 

Thomas Capek: "The Slovaks of Hungary." 

R. W. Seton- Watson : "Racial Problems in Hungary." 

W. S. Monroe: "Bohemia and the Czechs." (See also 
his work on "Bulgaria and Her People.") 

Francis H. Palmer: "Austro-Hungarian Life in Town 
and Country." (Also the volumes of the same series 
pertaining to Slav countries. Likewise, the volumes 
in the series, "The Story of the Nations.") 

W. R. MorfiU: "The Story of Poland." 

Leroy-Beaulieu: "Empire of the Tsars and the Rus- 
sians." 3 vols. 

Latimer: "Liberty of Conscience Under Three Tsars." 

Pamphlets, published by the Presbyterian Board of 
Publication and Sabbath School Work: "Protes- 
tantism in Poland," C. E. Edwards; "The Story of 
the Bohemian Church," W. G. Blaikie. 

Senate Document No. 662, 1911: Dictionary of Races 
and Peoples. 

National Geographic Magazine: February, 1917, and 
December, 1918. 

Emily Greene Balch: "Our Slavic Fellow Citizens." 

POPULATION AND AREA OF SLAVDOM 

Taking the number of Slavs as given in the Ency- 
clopedia Americana, 1920, disregarding their losses in 



118 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

the World War, It would exceed a hundred and seventy 
million. If these were to have the happy increase 
recorded in the United States in the first decades of 
its history, doubling every thirty years, then before 
some infants of to-day reach fourscore years the Slavs 
themselves would number nearly a billion. Their 
territories, too, if properly developed, without any 
annexations, would amply support them. For this an 
American illustration, without details of discussion, 
may suffice. If the potato, an important article of 
diet be supplied, famine would not seem so threatening. 
Assume five hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, not 
a record yield, to be obtainable by modern industry, 
and the per capita consumption annually two and a 
half bushels, then potatoes for a billion persons could be 
produced by one fourth the arable land of Colorado, 
described as the most mountainous of American states. 
If the vast, undeveloped areas of Slavdom are culti- 
vated by an industrious, intelligent race, the cost of 
living might everywhere be relieved. The area of all 
the Russias before the War would eclipse that of the 
full moon. Without here quoting logarithms, we may 
recall that the area of a sphere is the square of its 
diameter, multiplied by "pi" which is nearly 3.1416. 
The diameter of the moon is 2163 miles, and the full 
moon presents to us half the area of that sphere, or 
something over seven million squafe miles. Russian 
dominions exceeded eight million square miles, eclipsing 
the full moon, ''which was to be proved/' as geometries 
have said. 

COMPARISON OF MATT. 6 : 9-13, IN BOHEMIAN, POLISH, 

AND MAGYAR 

The cruelty of forcing the Magyar tongue upon 
Slovaks may be illustrated by a comparison of two 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 



119 



Slav versions of The Lord's Prayer, the Bohemian, 
practically identical with Slovak, and the Polish, with 
the Magyar. If rendered audibly, the resemblance of 
the first two, to a Slav ear would be far more striking 
than to American eyes from the printed page. Only a 
little more than one word to a verse in these Slav 
tongues is unlike, and these may be guessed by Slavs 
from the connection. Not a single Magyar word 
resembles any corresponding Slav word. The only 
word common to all three is the Hebrew word. Amen! 



Bohemian 

9. Otce nds, kteryz 
jsi V nebesich, 
posvgt' se jmeno 
tve. 

10. Pfid' krdlovstvi 
tve. 

Bud' vule tvd, jako 
V nebi tak i na 
zemi. 

11. Chleb nds vez- 
de j si dej nam 
dnes. 

12. A odpust' ndm 
viny nase, jakoz i 
my odpoustime 
vinnikum nasim. 



13. I neuvod' nd-s^v 
pokuseni, ale zbav 
nas od zleho. 

Nebo tv6 Jest krdr 
lovstvi, i moc, i 
sMva, na veky. 
Amen. 



Polish 
Ojcze nasz, ktorys 

jest w niebiesiech! 

SwIq si§ imi^ 

twoje; 
Przyjdz krolestwo 

twoje; 
b^dz wola twoja 

jako w niebie, tak 

i na ziemi. 

Chleba naszego 

powszedniego daj 
nam dzisiaj. 

I odpusc nam nasze 
winy, jako i my 
odpuszczamy nas- 
zym winowaj com ; 



I nie ww6dz nas na 
pokuszenie, ale 
nas zbaw ode zle- 
go; 

albowiem twoje jest 
krolestwo, i moc, 
i chwala, na wieki. 
Amen. 



Magyar 

Mi Atyank, ki vagy 
a mennyekben, 
szenteltessek meg 
a te neved; 

Jojjon el a te orszd- 
god; 

legyen meg a te 
akaratod, mint a 
mennyben ugy a 
foldon is. 

A mi mindennapi 
kenyertinket add 
meg nektink ma. 

fis bocsasd meg a mi 
vetkeinket, mike- 
pen mi is megboc- 
sdtunk azoknak, a 
kik elleniink vet- 
keztek; 

Es ne vigy minket 
kisertetbe, de sza- 
badits meg min- 
ket a gonosztol. 

Mert tied az orszdg 
es a hatalom es a 
dicsoseg mind or- 
okke. Amen! 



120 THE COMING OP THE SLAV 

Americans should recognize the difference between 
Magyars and Slovaks. Slovaks come from Hungary, 
but are not real Hungarians. Magyars, rulers of Hun- 
gary, oppressed Slovaks in a way never experienced by 
Americans, even under George the Third, since they 
forbade them to learn their own language. Some Slav 
leaders estimate that the Magyar tongue is spoken by 
about seven millions. The Bohemian or Slovak tongue 
is a key to languages spoken by nearly two hundred 
millions. The Magyar is an agglutinative language, 
not inflected like Slav or Indo-European tongues; it is 
not Indo-European, but an Asiatic intruder, a linguistic 
island in the midst of Europe. 

A TYPICAL JUSTIFICATION FOR EVANGELICAL MISSIONS 

Converts among immigrants in America have a 
keen appreciation of the Reformation, and desire 
another Reformation for their own homelands. They 
would see their experience justified in a document which 
was a landmark of that movement, Calvin's reply to 
Cardinal Sadoleto, a work that Luther said "had 
hands and feet." Note the following paragraphs: 

"Since you have cited us as defenders to the tribunal 
of God, I have no hesitation in calling upon you there 
to meet me. Our cause, as it is supported by the 
truth of God, will be at no loss for a complete defense. 
I speak not of our persons, whose safety will be found 
not in defense, but in humble confession and suppliant 
deprecation; but in so far as our ministry is concerned, 
there is none of us who will not be able thus to speak: 

"O Lord, I have, indeed, experienced how difficult 
and grievous it was to bear the invidious accusations 
with which I was harassed on the earth; but with the 
same confidence with which I then appealed to thy 
tribunal I now appear before thee, because I know that 
in thy judgment truth always reigns. They charge 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 121 

me with two of the worst crimes, heresy and schism. 
The heresy was that I dared to protest against the 
dogmas which they received. But what could I have 
done.^ I heard from thy mouth that there was no 
other hght of truth which could direct our souls into 
the way of hfe, than that which is kindled by thy Word. 
I heard that whatever human minds could conceive of 
themselves regarding thy majesty, the worship of thy 
deity, and the mysteries of thy religion was vanity. I 
heard that the introduction into thy Church, of doc- 
trines sprung from the human brain, was presumption. 
. . • But when I turned toward men, I saw very 
different principles prevailing. Those who were 
regarded as leaders of faith neither understood thy 
Word nor cared greatly for it. Among the people 
themselves, the highest honor paid to thy Word was 
to revere it from a distance as a thing inaccessible, and 
to abstain from all investigation of it. Thy Christ 
was indeed worshiped as God, and retained the name 
of Saviour; but where he ought to have been honored, 
he was left almost without honor. There was none who 
duly considered that one sacrifice which he offered on 
the cross, and by which he reconciled us to thyself, 
— ^none who ever dreamed of thinking of his eternal 
priesthood, and the intercession depending upon it — 
none who trusted in his righteousness only. . . „ 
And then when all, with no small insult to thy mercy, 
put confidence in good works, when by good works 
they strove to merit thy favor, to procure justification, 
to expiate their sins, and make satisfaction to thee 
(each of these things obliterating and making void the 
virtue of Christ's cross), they were yet altogether 
ignorant wherein good works consisted. For, just as 
if they were not at all instructed in righteousness by 
thy law, they had fabricated for themselves many 
useless frivolities, as a means of procuring thy favor. 



122 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

and on these they so plumed themselves, that, in com- 
parison of them, they almost condemned the standard 
of true righteousness which thy law recommended. 
That I might perceive these things thou, O Lord, didst 
shine upon me with the brightness of thy Spirit; that 
I might comprehend how impious and noxious they 
were, thou didst bear before me the torch of thy Word; 
that I might abominate them as they deserved, thou 
didst stimulate my soul. ... As to the charge of 
forsaking thy Church, which they were wont to bring 
against me, there is nothing of which conscience 
accuses me, unless, indeed, he is to be considered a 
deserter, who seeing the soldiers routed and scattered 
and abandoning their ranks, raises the leader's standard, 
and recalls them to their posts. . . . Always, both 
by word and deed, have I protested how eager I was 
for unity. Mine, however, was a unity of the Church, 
which should begin and end in thee." 

This solemn scene was supplemented by another 
confession from a layman: 

"I, O Lord, as I had been educated from a boy, 
always professed the Christian faith. But at first I had 
no other reason for my faith than that which then 
everywhere prevailed. Thy Word, which ought to 
have shone on all thy people like a lamp, was taken 
away, or at least suppressed as to us. ... I antici- 
pated a future resurrection, but hated to think of it, 
as being an event most dreadful. And this feeling not 
only had dominion over me in private, but was derived 
from the doctrine which was then uniformly delivered 
to the people by their Christian teachers. They, 
indeed, preached of thy clemency toward men, but 
confined it to those who should show themselves 
deserving of it. They, moreover, placed this desert 
in the righteousness of works, so that he only was 
received into thy favor who reconciled himself to thee 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 123 

by works. . . . When, however, I had performed all 
these things, though I had some intervals of quiet, I 
was still far off from true peace of conscience; for, 
whenever I descended into myself, or raised my mind 
to thee, extreme terror seized me — terror which no 
expiations nor satisfactions could cure. . . . Still, 
as nothing better offered, I continued the course which 
I had begun, when, lo, a very different form of doctrine 
started up, not one which led us away from the 
Christian profession, but one which brought it back to 
its fountainhead, and, as it were, clearing away the 
dross, restored it to its original purity. Offended by 
the novelty, I lent an unwilling ear, and at first, I 
confess, strenuously and passionately resisted; for 
(such is the firmness or effrontery with which it is 
natural to men to persist in the course which they have 
once undertaken) it was with the greatest difficulty I 
was induced to confess that I had all my life long been 
in ignorance and error. . . . My mind being now 
prepared for serious attention, I at length perceived, as 
if light had broken in upon me, in what a stye of error 
I had wallowed, and how much pollution and impurity 
I had thereby contracted. Being exceedingly alarmed 
at the misery into which I had fallen, and much more 
at that which threatened me in view of eternal death, 
I, as in duty bound, made it my first business to betake 
myself to thy way, condemning my past life with groans 
and tears. And now, O Lord, what remains to a wretch 
like me, but instead of defense, earnestly to supplicate 
thee not to judge according to its deserts that fearful 
abandonment of thy Word, from which, in wonderful 
goodness, thou hast delivered me." 

The conclusion of this reply, as Dr. Reyburn says, 
in his *'Life of Calvin," sums up the whole argument: 
*'The Lord grant, Sadoleto, that you and your party 
may at length perceive that the only true bond of 



124 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Church unity is Christ the Lord, who has reconciled 
us to God the Father, and will gather us out of our 
present dispersion into the fellowship of his body, 
that so, through his one Word and Spirit, we may 
grow together into one heart and soul." 

PRESBYTERIAN SLAV PERIODICALS 

The Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work 
of the Presbyterian Church makes interesting state- 
ments about its periodicals for Slavs: 

"There are more than sixteen hundred newspapers 
published in the United States in foreign languages. 
Most of them are devoted exclusively to the printing 
of secular news and not a few of them are the pro- 
moters of socialistic and anarchistic propaganda of 
the most virulent type. During the War many of them 
were filled with disloyal utterances and some were dis- 
continued by order of the Federal Government. Since 
the close of the War, the vigilance of the Government 
with reference to these publications has relaxed and 
many new periodicals have appeared representing the 
most radical views 

"Without doubt it is the duty of the Church to meet 
this situation, which in some quarters has become 
fraught with danger to our American institutions, by 
an equally aggressive and persistent publication and 
distribution of literature devoted to the propagation 
of evangelical truth and Americanization." For the 
Bohemians or Czechoslovaks, "Our sixteen-page weekly 
paper, Kresfanske Listy (Christian Journal), has been 
published since 1906 under the editorial and business 
management of Dr. Vaclav Losa, a Bohemian mission- 
ary pastor, who, because of his knowledge of the needs 
of the immigrants and his unusual executive ability, 
was appointed superintendent of the work among 
foreign-speaking peoples in Pittsburgh Presbytery. It 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV Uo 

is worthy of note that under his guidance the Presby- 
tery of Pittsburgh is maintaining a larger work among 
foreign-speaking people than any other presbytery. 
Under his efficient leadership this Bohemian paper 
has been the means of strengthening the efforts of our 
own and other evangelical bodies among that people. 
. . . For the use of the children in the Bohemian 
Sunday schools we are publishing a weekly paper, 
Besidka (Story Hour), containing stories for children 
which the parents may read to them." 

Concerning the Ruthenians (or Ukrainians), "while 
the Protestant constituency among Ruthenians is 
comparatively small, their need of a periodical is as 
urgent as that of other classes of immigrants whom 
we are endeavoring to influence. During recent years 
there has been a well-defined movement away from 
the authority and worship of the Greek Catholic Church. 
Large numbers have turned to athesim and infidelity. 
For many years, under the oppression of Russia and 
with the approval of the Church authorities, these 
people have been prohibited from using their own 
language either in the schools or in print. In America 
they have a few newspapers, but our weekly paper, 
Sojuz (Union), is the only religious periodical in the 
Ukrainian tongue published in the United States." 

Lastly, as to Poles, "for the use of missionaries 
among the Polish immigrants our Board has united 
with the Publication Board of the United Presbyterian 
Church in the publication of a monthly periodical 
entitled Slowa Zywota (Words of Life). We have but 
few missions among the Poles, and at present these 
papers are circulated mainly through our colporteurs. 
The seed that has thus been sown is giving evidences 
of growth and the outlook for the future of this work is 
very encouraging." 



126 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

THE SLAV VERSIONS 

A new version of the Bible is "a well at which 
millions may drink"; and the British and Foreign 
Bible Society has excelled all other evangelical agencies 
in opening such wells for Slavdom. Data may be 
obtained from its annual reports, but especially from 
its encyclopedic work, the greatest ever attempted of 
its kind, *'A Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions 
of Holy Scripture/' The first volume, the English 
section, appeared in 1903. 

Beginning with the most ancient of the Slav versions, 
that which is popularly called ''Slavonic," we quote: 
*'The term 'Slavonic' is popularly applied to that form 
of Slav speech which survives in ecclesiastical use in 
Russia and other Slav countries. Scholars distinguish 
three main recensions, Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian, 
in ecclesiastical Slavonic. The majority of the editions 
belong to the Russian form of ecclesiastical Slavonic 
which is now in use among all Slavs of the Orthodox 
Church." The earliest editions were the Psalter 
(a.d. 1491), the Gospels (1512), the Acts and the 
Epistles (Moscow, 1564), generally considered to be the 
earliest book printed in Russia, and the entire Slavonic 
Bible in Volhynia, Russia, in 1581. But in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, the hundreds of 
editions, Testaments, and portions of this version 
catalogued, would amaze all who are unacquainted with 
such a history. All this implies myriads of readers. 
The Russian Bible Society was founded in 1813. 
Before it was suppressed in 1826 it was estimated that 
it had published at Moscow and Petrograd editions of 
the Bible and New Testament in Slavonic and Russian 
amounting to over 500,000 copies." 

Of Russian Scriptures we note: 1. The White Rus- 
sian, in which a version was made in the first part of 
the sixteenth century. The language is "a PoUsh 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 127 

Russian, used in White Russia and parts of Lithuania. 
To-day the White Russian differs from the standard 
form of the language in httle else than pronunciation. 
The first editions were at Prague, (Job, 1517)." 

2. The Great Russian, which is simply the standard 
form of modern Russian. *'A11 the editions are printed 
in the Russian character ('Grajdanski') which is the 
modern form of the Cyrillic character introduced by 
Peter the Great. As in the case of the Slavonic Bible, 
the order and number of the books in this and other 
editions of the Old Testament, published by the Synod, 
agree with those in the Septuagint." The B. F. B. S. 
report for 1910 gives further details as to the Old 
Testament authorized and issued by the Russian 
Church. 'Tt is a translation from the Hebrew. But 
the short variations which are found in the LXX are 
inserted in the text within square brackets, with a 
footnote on the first page pointing out the significance 
of these brackets. Of such additions there are a dozen 
in the first chapter of Genesis. The apocryphal books 
and passages are also included, with a footnote in every 
case stating that they are translated from the Greek." 

3. The Little Russian, or Ruthenian, used in Galicia 
and southern Russia. The Ruthenians now prefer to 
be called Ukrainians. The first edition of the Ruthenian 
Scriptures was the Pentateuch (1869) at Lemberg. 
The B. F. B. S. reports state that the entire Ruthenian 
Bible was published in 1904, and that thus another 
European race is provided with the whole Bible at the 
expense of the B. F. B. S. and through its instru- 
mentality. In 1910 it was stated that this edition, of 
course not containing the Apocrypha, had been for- 
bidden in Russia, but would now be allowed if duty 
be paid. 

The earliest editions of the Serbo-Croatian Scriptures 
were the Liturgical Epistles and Gosp>els (1495) and 



128 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

the New Testament (1563). The Croatians gave us 
the word "cravat," from their national name. In 
B. F. B. S. price hsts, the Croatian Scriptures are 
included under "Serbian," with the statement that they 
are in Latin character, the Serbian being in a modified 
Russian alphabet. Their report for 1919 mentions 
progress in preparing an improved Serbian version. 

In the report for 1902, mention is made of the death 
of Dr. Long, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, "till 
recently a professor in Robert College on the Bos- 
phorus. Dr. Long's relations with the Bible Society 
go back to 18G0, when he and the late Dr. Riggs, with 
two native Bulgarian scholars, were appointed to 
revise and further translate the Scriptures into Bul- 
garian. This little band completed its labors in 1871, 
when the whole Bible was printed at Constantinople. 
This has ever since been the standard Bulgarian 
version." The report for 1919 mentions a revised 
Bulgarian Bible, nearly ready for the press. 

Some years ago, it was estimated that Slovenian was 
spoken by 1,500,000, of whom 1,300,000 inhabited 
southern Austria. As early as 1555 we find Matthew's 
Gospel in Slovene; in 1558, the Gospels and the 
Acts, and in 1584, the Slovene Bible, editio princeps. 
There is a Hungaro-Slovene Testament and Psalms 
for 75,000 Slovenes in Hungary, their New Testament 
in 1771, apparently reprinted in 1817. The report for 
1915 announced that the complete Slovene Bible was 
published and added for the first time to the Bible 
Society's list. 

As to the interesting remnant of the Wends, they are 
112,000 German subjects inhabiting a district along 
the river Spree, formerly known as Lusatia, now 
divided between Prussia and Saxony. They all belong 
to the Evangelical Lutheran Confession, except about 
12,000 who are Roman Catholics. The term "Wend" 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 129 

is the appellation given them by their German neigh- 
bors, but they call themselves "Serbs," and this name 
becomes in Latin, "Sorabus." Hence German phi- 
lologists call this language "Sorbisch," and English 
scholars refer to it as ''Sorb" or ''Sorbian." The 
Upper Wends are 77,000 in Prussia and Saxon Lusatia, 
and the Lower Wends have 35,000 in Prussian Lusatia. 
The B. F. B. S. price list, 1915, had a Testament and 
Psalms in Upper Wend. 

In Polish the earliest versions are Ecclesiastes, 1522, 
the New Testament, 1552, 1553, and 1556, and the 
Radziwill Bible of 1563, bearing the name of a noble 
Reformed family; besides the Roman Catholic Polish 
New Testament, 1593, and Bible, 1599, of Jacob Wujek 
at Cracow. The B. F. B. S. colporteurs circulate the 
latter as well as the standard Bible, of course without 
Catholic notes. 

In 1912 the publication of some tentative transla- 
tions for Slovaks was announced, three of the Gospels; 
and the price list for 1915 contained a Slovak New 
Testament. 

History ascribes the earliest Bohemian translation 
of Scriptures to Cyril and Methodius, perhaps a.d. 860. 
This was revised by John Huss (1373-1415). The 
editio princeps of the New Testament is dated 
1475, and that of the whole Bible, 1488. These were 
versions from the Vulgate. A century later the United 
Brethren appointed a committee to translate the Bible 
from the original tongues. This version was printed 
in 1593 at Kralitz Castle and has since been known as 
the Kralicka or Kralitz Bible, a great literary monu- 
ment of the Bohemian language. The B. F. B. S. 
report for 1912 adds, that for many years Pastor 
Jan Karafiat, of Prague, has been comparing this 
version with the Hebrew and Greek texts, and noting 
more exact renderings of the original. Though delayed 



130 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

by the War, Mr. Karafiat's revised Bohemian Bible 
has been pubHshed, and copies have lately arrived 
in America. 

LETTERS OF DR. ELTERICH AND DR. HAYS 

From the long list of letters commending Pittsburgh 
Presbytery's exhibit, two additional messages are 
given here, one from Dr. W. O. Elterich, Presbyterian 
missionary of Chefoo, China, the other from Dr. C. C. 
Hays, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a former moderator 
of the Synod of Pennsylvania: 

Dr. Elterich: "It was a great pleasure to me to attend 
recently the Foreign Missions meeting of the Presby- 
tery of Pittsburgh held in the First Presbyterian 
Church. I was exceedingly interested in the exhibit, 
the history of the work done among the foreigners of 
this region, and in the performances of the young 
women from the Coraopolis Bible Training School. I 
doubt if there is another presbytery in our Church in 
this country which can make such a fine showing. To 
a foreign missionary like myself who has been in China 
for many years, this work has especially appealed. I 
feel that the Presbytery of Pittsburgh has found the 
most sensible and effective way of dealing with the 
problem of evangelizing the European foreign popula- 
tion in this country. The selection and training of 
foreign workers with an efficient foreign superintendent 
is the method which has made foreign missions such a 
success in non-Christian lands. It stands to reason 
that the same principles applied and adapted to the 
work for foreigners in this land are bound to be suc- 
cessful, and this work of the Pittsburgh Presbytery is 
a striking example of the same. 

'Tn view of the millions in Europe who are coming 
to our shores as fast as they can get over, all churches 
and denominations should seriously consider how to 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 131 

handle this multitude to make them Christian citizens 
of our Christian Republic. Pittsburgh Presbytery is 
an example and model as to how this work can be done. 
May God's richest blessing rest upon the efforts of 
your committee and fellow workers who are doing 
this work." 

Dr. Hays: "It was a fine thing for Pittsburgh Pres- 
bytery to set apart a day for the consideration of 
its foreign work and I took great pleasure in calling 
the attention of the Synod of Pennsylvania to what the 
presbytery is doing. I was greatly impressed with 
the interest manifested on your special day. The large 
attendance, including many like myseK from outside 
yoiu* own presbytery, was itself an evidence of the 
success of your work throughout many years. The 
exhibit showing work done, buildings in operation, and 
the number and quality of teachers employed, was a 
most effective object lesson. No one can question that 
the work among foreigners is to-day the great work of 
Pittsburgh Presbytery." 

MR. PRUDKy's journeys CONTINUED 

We now follow this itinerary from Poland to the 
region of Volhynia in Russia, where there are about 
50,000 Bohemians, including a Reformed element. 
First we note the village of Kupicev, near the cele- 
brated fort of Brest-Li to vsk, and Kovel. It is seven 
miles from its train station, Holoby. Mr. Holub, a 
Presbyterian of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, was married 
in Kupicev. One half of this village is Russian, the 
other half Bohemian, and they are in great contrast. 
These are comparatively new settlers, not of two 
centuries ago, but since 1870. When the famous 
Bohemian historian, Palacky, and his son-in-law, 
Rieger, visited Russia, at a national convention in 
Moscow, they recommended that Bohemians emigrate 



132 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

to Russia in preference to America. There is a Re- 
formed Bohemian school there, and they hold their 
meetings in it, as their brethren do in some other 
places where there is no church. The Russians have 
an Orthodox Church. A cantor supplies the Reformed 
congregation, and once a year, a Polish pastor from 
Vilna who has learned Bohemian to some extent, 
makes them a visit, as he does for Cesky Borjatin. 

Cesky Borjatin, the next place visited, is two miles 
from Luck, and has a fine Bohemian Reformed Church, 
with about five hundred souls, not counting some in 
surrounding villages. These are more cultured, and 
have more means than their brethren in some other 
centers just described. The soil is rich, yielding good 
crops of hops. The Bohemians suffered in the War. 
When an Austrian army captured the place, naturally 
they welcomed Bohemian soldiers who were in their 
ranks. The Russians recaptured it and proceeded 
to punish Bohemian civilians as traitors. The worthy 
Reformed curator, Opocensky, was imprisoned, and 
for some time in danger of execution, but later was 
released by the revolutionists. Another good worker 
is Joseph Baloun, also Janata, an elder, efficient in 
their church and in Sunday-school work. Baloun 's 
son also had his escapes in war, eventually engaging in 
Y. M. C. A. work in Brno. 

The Russian Government had an idea that Bohemians 
were inclined to be Hussites; and while it did not favor 
Polish Roman Catholic churches, it was willing to 
encourage a Hussite movement, supposing that this 
would finally become Greek Orthodox. Accordingly 
they supported three Bohemian Catholic priests, 
married men, who were accepted as Hussites. In 
practice, according to policy, in one community these 
would conduct a Reformed service, in another a 
Catholic service, and elsewhere a Greek Orthodox 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 133 

service. In fact, they were not perfectly agreed, one 
preferring a Hussite organization, another the Old 
Catholic, while the third was undecided. Yet this 
peculiar style of Church unity did not appeal to 
Russian authorities, who abandoned their Hussite 
experiment, and decreed that all these Bohemian set- 
tlers must become Orthodox. Some Bohemian Ortho- 
dox churches still survive. But the Bohemian Re- 
formed, deprived of their church and school, made 
protests. Later on, the czar became ill, and prayers 
everywhere were made for his recovery. Seizing such 
an opportunity, the Reformed asked that they too 
might assemble for prayer, and this was granted. 
After the czar passed away, and the new czar took the 
throne, a brave petitioner, risking arrest, fell on his 
knees before him with a petition. The czar graciously 
received him, and at last granted by a ukase religious 
freedom to the Reformed Bohemians. Mr. Prudky 
considered their Church life to be of a good type. They 
greatly desired a Bohemian pastor for themselves and 
the neighboring villages, and this occasioned another 
journey later on for Mr. Prudky to the Reformed 
Synod of Vilna. Mr. Prudky met one of the priests 
referred to, Kaspar, still Orthodox, no longer able to 
conduct a school as he had done for some time. He 

V 

also met in Cesky Borjatin the widow of another of 
the priestly trio, Hrdlicka. In this place there is a 
Bohemian Orthodox school, with an Orthodox teacher, 
and the Reformed children, as it is a public school, are 
in attendance. 

Mr. Prudky next went to Michaelovka, near Rovno. 
In that region is the series of fortresses, Dubno, Luck, 
and Rovno. He held three meetings, morning, after- 
noon, and night, taking most of the day. The mayor 
is a religious man. Here the Reformed have four 
hundred souls, and the Baptists a small number. The 



134 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

cause of temperance, or as they call it, "abstinence," 
has made gains in that locality. The people have not 
the advantages of the culture and the soil which belong 
to those of Cesky Borjatin. The whole village belongs 
to a Polish nobleman. The Bohemians are renters, 
and the ground is not so well cared for as if they owned 
it. In this village, also in the next, of this tour, the 
people were originally from Zelov, hence from an 
emigration of 1620, and later. This next place is 
Hlupanin, with only eighty souls of the Reformed 
Church, but two or three hundred Baptists, who also 
have a resident minister. Mr. Prudky called upon 
him, and he and his people attended Mr. Prudky's 
service, which was held, as the Reformed here must do, 
in a private house. This ends the story for Volhynia, 
so far as it concerns Bohemian Reformed churches. 
In Hlupanin, far from any educational center, is a 
layman with a fine library, a man well versed in history 
and intelligent in theological discussions. 

From Volhynia, Mr. Prudky's tour led him to the. 
Kherson Government over Russian steppes, without 
trees, wood, or coal, first to the village of Alexandrowka, 
over a mile from Birzula, which is the junction of 
railroads connecting the important cities of Kiev and 
Ekaterinoslav. Their houses are neat, but primitive, 
the walls made of a mixture of earth and straw, repaired 
every year. Dr. Losa has seen such houses in Canada, 
constructed by emigrants from that part of Russia. 
These Bohemians built their houses in common, then 
distributed them by lot. They use agricultural 
machines, and rotate crops by changing a district of 
pasture to farm land, and the reverse, each year. 
For fuel they use a mixture of straw and manure, which 
some American westerners have called "'Kansas coal." 
They raise wheat, corn, and sunflowers, for the people 
eat the seeds of the sunflower as Americans eat peanuts. 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 135 

The soil is very good, but the whole place is owned by 
a Russian nobleman; and as they must move away in 
a few years, they have no inducement to plant trees, 
evidently a wretched system for so good a country. 
In a later journey, Mr. Prudky observed that some 
soldiers, veterans of the war with Japan, owned small 
tracts allotted to them. Many farmers own fifty 
horses, and more than forty cows. There is no church, 
but a school used also as a meeting place. The Bohe- 
mian Reformed have three hundred souls, and there are 
a few Baptists. Mr. Prudky afterwards sent them a 
teacher who is now in the United States, an ordained 
minister, Mr. Drobny. Originally these, too, were 
from Zelov. 

About twenty miles from this village, Mr. Prudky 
saw Bohemka, newly built, a larger place, "like a 
swallow's nest," he says, and having a fine view over 
the steppe. The Reformed have five hundred souls. 
They meet in the school, located in the center, where a 
flag is displayed at the time of service. Stundists are 
not far away, but Mr. Prudky was not able to visit 
them. He held three services on Sunday, and states 
that they are a good, spiritual people, loving their 
Bibles and their hymns. In these towns all can read, 
though not all can write, but they are surrounded by 
an illiterate population. 

The last part of this journey brought Mr. Prudky to 
two groups of families, all originally from Zelov. Four 
brothers, all with large families, live in Ljubasevka, 
which is a train station between Birzula and Ekateri- 
noslav. They own their land, and have good buildings, 
vineyards, fine grapes, vegetables, and flowers. Here 
also were trees. For their children they have a Bohe- 
mian governess, instructing them in the Bible, cate- 
chism, and the like. During three days, in forenoons 
and afternoons, they assembled to hear Bible expositions 



136 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

from Mr. Prudky, and as Baptists and Stundists were 
in their neighborhood, they had special questions to 
ask concerning their deaHngs with them. 

Farther on, in the hamlet of Zachovka, were three 
families, two of whom rent the ground, and one fur- 
nishes labor. These have a few trees, a large planta- 
tion of watermelons, also their gardens, and their 
primitive houses of earth and straw. A patriarchal, 
intelligent man, who has a library with religious books, 
the father of one of the families, lives with them. Here 
for the first time Mr. Prudky read an evangelical relig- 
ious paper in Russian, published in Petrograd, the 
Evangelical Christian, copies of which he has seen 
since. This is interesting, as it shows the survival of 
publications from the Pashkof movement, to which it 
really belongs. Two meetings were held here, and 
people came sixteen miles from Bohemka to visit them. 
Mr. Prudky finished this tour with a brief visit again in 
Bohemka. For some years these Bohemka people 
had lived in the Samara Government on the Volga, 
where they had bought ground; but they had no rain 
for two years, and had to abandon the region. Some 
of them had gone from Samara to Siberia where they 
founded Novopavlovska in the Akmulinska oblast or 
province. They own their ground, and have a school 
for their meetings. They desired Mr. Prudky to visit 
them, but this would have involved a trip of fourteen 
days by train, and two hundred miles farther than their 
nearest station, which was impossible. And Mr. 
Prudky did not have time to visit the Stundists of the 
region at a period when they suffered persecutions. 

During two days in June, 1909, Mr. Prudky attended 
a Reformed Synod in Vilna, his . second journey in 
Russia. There were two Reformed synods then in 
Russia, the one of Vilna, the other of Warsaw. There 
is some interchange of visiting delegates between these 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 137 

synods. Bohemian pastors are in the Warsaw Synod; 
but Kupicev, Cesky Borjatin, Michaelovka, and some 
others send their representatives each year to the 
Vilna Synod. On this occasion, two were sent from 
Cesky Borjatin, earnestly seeking a pastor. A fine 
Pohsh nobleman presided; and Rev. Fastrzembski 
was the superintendent. Mr. Prudky was cordially 
received. The synod still has some endowments, or 
had at that time; it was willing to assist Cesky Borjatin 
financially, and it made recommendations for a pastor. 
But difficulties intervened. Such a pastor must be a 
Russian subject, and must pass an examination in 
four of the eight classes or grades of a Russian Gym- 
nasium, including a knowledge of the Russian language. 
Hence the Russian Government refused permission, 
and this charge has had no pastor since 1909 ! No such 
restrictions applied to Zelov, where an Austrian subject 
might serve as pastor. It seemed to be Russian policy 
then to encourage Bohemian churches in Polish terri- 
tory, but to discourage them in purely Russian regions. 
But since Poland gained independence, Poland has 
closed Bohemian schools, which still are allowed in 
Russia, for instance, in Volhynia. 

The third journey of this series was in 1911, into 
German Silesia, now Poland, though west of Breslau 
it is Germany still. Husinec is now in Germany near 
Breslau, and has a Bohemian Reformed church, but 
no school, as the children are forced to attend German 
schools. They had preaching in Bohemian, and a 
German service once in three weeks, though invariably 
the hymns were in Bohemian. The Bohemian pastor 
then would accept no help from Mr. Prudky, so the 
latter held no service there, but visited the people, 
the elder Bohemians in villages near by, especially 
Upper, Middle, and Lower Podiebrad. The people 
here speak the classic Bohemian of the Kralicka Bible. 



138 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Among the Germans they are formal, but among 
themselves familiar; with the former it is "Sie/' and 
with their Bohemian brethren it is ''du,'' They are 
prosperous, and in the markets their produce has 
the highest reputation. These Reformed people number 
more than six hundred, and they have a fine church 
building. 

Some time after this visit, the pastor died, and they 
called a minister from Pilsen. He came and preached 
with great acceptance to the older people, but the 
German Government refused its permission, and sent 
instead a German minister of Huguenot ancestry, who 
had learned some Bohemian in Friedrichstabor. This 
was some three years after Mr. Prudky's visit. The 
people protested against having a German pastor 
and a man of liberal theological tendencies. Recently 
the German Government, still pursuing its Germanizing 
policy, sent German hymn books for their services. To 
the older Bohemians their language is sacred, and the 
opinion they expressed to Mr. Prudky was that as their 
children lost their Bohemian language, they would be 
exposed to German influences and also lose their faith. 
For the benefit of Bohemians in German regions, a 
famous book of the great Bohemian educator and 
reformer, John Amos Comenius (Komensky), has been 
printed in Gothic type,'^and used with excellent effect. 
It is, "The Will of the Dying Mother"— "in which she 
divides among her sons and heirs the treasures entrusted 
to her by God." This message, issued in the middle of 
the seventeenth century, at the close of the great 
Thirty Years' War, in which Bohemian liberties were 
lost, is a work that stirs the Bohemian heart by its 
pathos. 

The next locality visited was Friedrichsgratz (Bed- 
f ichuv Hradec) near Oppeln (Opoli) where there was a 
Slovak pastor, using Slovak and German. The German 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 139 

Government supports Germanizing pastors. He had a 
diploma from the German Government commending 
the progress of his school and church. That church is 
a loyal Reformed Church; he sought to make it Luth- 
eran. Consistent Reformed people have a distaste for 
the use of the cross and for pictures in the church. 
Mr. Prudky remarked to him that there was one 
"picture" that he missed, which was a Bohemian Bible 
in that church! The children were being Germanized, 
as he observed in one family which he visited. He had 
no opportunity to conduct a Bohemian service on a 
week day, when people could be gathered together 
only with difficulty. This church has over a thousand 
souls. The homes of the people are neat. One old 
man told Mr. Prudky that he did not expect the 
Bohemian tongue to die out in that community; but 
Mr. Prudky did not share his hope. 

Like a true Bohemian, Mr. Prudky was much inter- 
ested in a visit to Lesno (Lissa), near Posen, which has 
a library and a museum, with manuscripts and memo- 
rials of Comenius, who for years administered the 
Gymnasium and the church there after leaving 
Bohemia during the Thirty Years' War. The pastor 
of the German Reformed church was a good historian 
of Comenius. One of the treasures is a sacramental 
cup of gold, adorned with jewels, brought by a Bohe- 
mian nobleman. There Mr. Prudky met Rev. 
Kurnatowski of Kovno province, a Reformed Polish 
pastor; and as a result of their interview there was 
held later in Prague a conference of evangelical Slav 
workers of several nationalities. 

Seen next in this tour was Friedrichstabor (Bed- 
richuv Tabor) with its villages, Cernin among them, 
in German Poland, near Bralin, a congregation with a 
total of twelve hundred souls. Here was the pastor 
above mentioned, who was afterwards transferred to 



140 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

Huslnec. At the time he was friendly, and requested 
Mr. Prudky to preach, hoping for something to check 
a movement about which he was concerned, toward a 
so-called ''Pentecostal" development, also some Baptist 
innovations. Old people were present who could not 
speak German, who wept when they heard the gospel 
once more, after years of privation, in their native 
tongue. Later on the church was for two years without 
a pastor, and the elders wrote asking Mr. Prudky to 
visit them. He asked the consent of the German pastor 
of Bralin, who sent a characteristic German response — 
that he did not wish to see him in that part of the 
country, and that he would oppose him! So he could 
not return there. On this tour he revisited Zelov, and 
some other places above mentioned. 

The fourth and fifth journeys were in a different 
direction, to Croatia and Slavonia, by way of Vienna 
and Zagreb. He confessed that these travels were not 
so enjoyable as those in Russia; for he was impressed 
with the difference in an emigration from spiritual 
motives, such as could be found there, and an emigra- 
tion induced by material gains. He did not see such 
spirituality in those colonies as in Russia. He noticed 
a peculiarity in the country, that the population was 
mixed to some extent as in America — ^here a Croatian 
village, there a Serbian, another Italian, another 
German, and so on. First he saw Uljanik in Croatia, a 
small town, where the Bohemian church and manse 
were in one building, a congregation of some two 
hundred souls. 

Next he visited a congregation of some three hundred 
souls in Herzegovac. They had no church building, 
but worshiped in a public school. The character of the 
community may be inferred from the fact that they 
gladly arranged with a German minister to supply 
them, one who spoke Croatian, inasmuch as he offered 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 141 

to do so without salary! Mr. Prudky considered the 
congregation to be in a low state, materialistic, indiffer- 
ent as to whether services were held in German or 
Bohemian. 

The last place visited in Croatia was Brsljanica, 
where there were some ten Reformed families, most of 
whom had removed from Uljanik. Although it was 
far off, it could be reached by their horses, so that they 
could go there. They assembled for Mr. Prudky's 
service in a private house, and were thankful for it, 
showing a better spirit than those in Herzegovac. 

The last place in his journeys about Slavdom was 
Pletenica in Slavonia near Bosnia. (There is no 
Bohemian Reformed Church in Bosnia.) Church and 
manse here are one house, and a German minister 
supplied them who could preach in Croatian, the 
hymns also being in that language. Here he met that 
remarkable convert, Kujinek, their treasurer, the fruit 
of Dr. Losa's mission. On his fifth tour, revisiting this 
region, he brought them a Bohemian missionary, a 
deacon. 

This fourth journey had an additional excursion. 
From Pletenica Mr. Prudky went to Belgrade (Beleh- 
rad), capital of Serbia, spending two days seeing 
Mohammedan mosques and other places of interest. 
Here there is a small evangelical congregation, mostly 
German, with a church building, a school, and a 
parsonage. The pastor was friendly, a Croatian, a 
converted Romish priest, who had studied in Bielefeld, 
in Germany, and whose school was German, though 
emphasizing the study of Serbian. His preaching was 
in German. This is the only evangelical church in 
Belgrade, or so far as Mr. Prudky learned, in all Serbia, 
only scattered groups of evangelicals being found else- 
where. Good work has been done in the colportage of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society. This church, 



142 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

apart from recognition by State laws, had direct 
support from the Serbian king and his prime minister. 
On New Year's Day, the pastor was regularly and 
formally received by the king, and in the church was a 
chair as a seat of honor for visitors from the court. 
The Slav Mohammedans have lost all Slav character- 
istics, are classed as Turks, and differ from other 
Mohammedans only in being monogamists. Relatively 
they are not numerous in Belgrade, but abound in 
Bosnia. 

After a trip of six hours on the Danube, he arrived 
at O' Moldawa, a station on that river. He had written 
to a pastor in this part of southern Hungary, who 
replied that he was in charge and had no need of help 
from Bohemia or any visitor from there. He sent 
gendarmes to investigate. They delayed Mr. Prudky 
for about an hour, but could not hinder his errand, as 
his passports were perfectly in order. Taking a car- 
riage, he went eight miles up into the mountains, 
with views of fine scenery, as the famous "Iron Gates" 
of the Danube were not far off. Bohemians had had 
their colonies, some six villages, in this region for a 
hundred years. His purpose was to visit the only 
evangelical village of the group, Szensilona, where the 
Reformed have four hundred souls, and the Congre- 
gationalists, who came later, a hundred souls. The 
Reformed have a fine church, no Sunday school, but 
a public school. The mayor, Cermak, received him 
cordially. The pastor, whom he met in the market 
place was very unfriendly. He spoke only Magyar, 
which Mr. Prudky did not understand. He read his 
sermons in Bohemian, but the people could not under- 
stand him; as for his personal characteristics he was 
wholly unacceptable to them. He, too, would have 
prevented this visit, if possible, by summoning gen- 
darmes. Mr. Prudky met a few of the Congregation- 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 143 

alists in their missionary's house. Altogether, his stay 
in the village was only about two hours. He never 
revisited Hungary. 

A note may be added as to Zagreb (Agram), the 
important capital of Croatia, a university town, with 
more or less than 100,000 inhabitants. On his fourth 
journey, Mr. Prudky visited a Reformed family pos- 
sessing a fine estate near the city. A few other Bohe- 
mian families are scattered in the region. They go 
occasionally to Zagreb, though the evangelical church 
there is German. Their pastor must also know Croatian, 
and the church records must be in that language. 
Germans hold the fort, and expect all Reformed or 
Lutheran, all of the Augsburg or of the Helvetic Con- 
fessions, to come to them, no matter whether they are 
Bohemians or of other nationalities. So it was for- 
merly in Bohemia and Moravia. After the beginnings 
of toleration, the Bohemian Reformed congregations 
were all rural. German influences, even Protestant, 
opposed their coming into towns, as a Bohemianizing 
scheme. After 1880 (earlier than that in Prague), they 
did organize Reformed congregations in cities. (Brno, 
1884; Olomouc, 1898, et cetera.) So when the Zagreb 
pastor died, and Pastor Gerza, who had been pastor 
in Uljanik ten years ago, visited there in 1917, of 
course the Germans did not call him to be their pastor 
in Zagreb. 

Prochazka, the deacon Mr. Prudky brought with 
him to Slavonia on his fifth journey in 1913, did good 
work, but in two years he died. During the War, in 
1917, Pastor Gerza went from Bohemia to visit all 
these fields of the Bohemians in Croatia and Slavonia, 
finding all pastorless, sheep without a shepherd. Mr. 
Prudky adds to the sad picture their materialistic 
neglect of education. In the poor public schools, 
sometimes overcrowded, the Bohemian children, not 



144 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

knowing Croatian, are at a disadvantage and learn 
little. He saw a Bohemian boy of thirteen years, 
unable to read or write, which would be rare in 
Bohemia itself. 

STATISTICS OF THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN, 1920 

The Kalich ("Cup") or Church Yearbook of the 
Bohemian Brethren for 1920 gives statistics for the 
Reformed and Lutheran Bohemian churches separately, 
since their merger has not been completed in detail. 
A '"seniorat" corresponds somewhat to our presbytery. 
Their synod, in February, 1921, planned to divide 
Bohemia and Moravia into twelve seniorats. In 
Bohemia, this Yearbook reports, of the former Reformed 
bodies, Jn the seniorat of Prague, 15 churches, 23,189 
souls; Caslav seniorat, 15 churches, 16,578 souls, and 
without repeating, corresponding figures : Chrudim, 
15, and 19,957; Podebrad, 17, and 20,495. Thus these 
four seniorats have over 80,000 souls. And of the 
former Lutherans in Bohemia, of parishes, 15, souls, 
14,080. In Moravia the western seniorat, 18, and 
27,362; the eastern, 10, and 16,245; and the Vsetin 
seniorat, 13, and 19,816, or a total of over 63,000 souls. 
Besides, there are '^Moravian Brethren" supported 
by those of that name in Germany, with six congrega- 
tions, 1331 souls, mostly Bohemian. It is now 
expected that German support will be withdrawn, and 
these too, merged in this united body. 

Of the officers of the synod, the names of some 
leaders may be mentioned: President, Rev. Josef 
Soucek, of Prague; vice president. Rev. Ferdinand 
Hrejsa, who is also a superintendent, of Prague; 
treasurer, Ferdinand Kavka, and secretary. Dr. 
Josef Krai, both of Prague. Of the synod's committee. 
Dr. Ferdinand Cisaf, superintendent for Moravia, at 
Klobouky, Moravia; and of the substitute com- 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 145 

mittee, Rev. Francis Prudky, pastor at Olomouc, 
Moravia. These all can read English correspondence, 
and there are many other pastors or workers besides 
who can correspond in English. 

COMENIUS, AND "tHE WILL OF THE DYING MOTHER" 

John Amos Comenius, famous as an educator and 
a reformer, was born in Moravia, March 28, 1592, and 
died in Amsterdam, November 15, 1670. After the 
Battle of the White Mountain, 1620, he fled to Poland, 
where in 16S2 he was elected bishop of the "Unitas 
Fratrum Bohemorum," or Bohemian Brethren, being 
the last bishop in the history of that noble Christian 
communion. His educational writings gave him honors 
in Sweden, and England and a world-wide reputation. 
In 1654 he fled from Lesno or Lissa in Poland, in another 
war, to Holland, where he spent the remainder of his 
life. Among his numerous works is one in Bohemian, 
not translated into English, containing the remarkable 
prophecy of the future triumph of righteousness in his 
country: "The Will of the Dying Mother— In Which 
She Distributes the Treasures Which Were Granted 
to Her by God." It is rich in quotations of Scripture, 
and its pathos stirs emotion in every true Bohemian 
heart. 

It begins in the legal phraseology of a will, with the 
solemn utterances of a deathbed scene. The *'Dying 
Mother" has no silver or gold, is in widowed circum- 
stances, deprived of her churches and her property, 
but enriched with her Master's spiritual treasures, 
which she now bequeaths to her children and to her 
sisters, representing four classes. First, to the Bohe- 
mian Brotherhood, she gives parting instructions. Some 
of them have strayed from their fellowship, or have 
compromised with their enemies. A tearful repentance 
is her bequest to them. They should turn to God like 



146 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

the Ninevites, and return to their first love. To her 
faithful ones, she leaves the better land, the hope of 
eternal life, the white robes and palms of the new 
Jerusalem, and the welcome voice, "These are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." To the Polish Brotherhood, really an offshoot 
of the Bohemian Brethren, this "Mother" speaks, as 
to her "second daughter," praying that no such desola- 
tion may befall them as that of Bohemia. There were 
those who said they were Jews, but were not; they, too, 
should not have the name of the Brotherhood, while 
they were not of it. They should remember their 
origin, and should not be a degenerate, barren vineyard. 
They should maintain discipline, as many do not. If 
pastors bring in strange doctrines from foreign coun- 
tries, let them beware lest the Church grow colder and 
colder, many forsaking it (as, in fact, many Polish 
nobles did in later times), and beware lest their candle- 
stick be removed "out of its place." If they should be 
dispersed in foreign countries, let them serve Christ 
in other evangelical Churches, doing this in simplicity: 
"Walk in the good way that I have taught you, and 
seek concord and peace in every country where you 
may sojourn." 

In the course of these farewells, is a parting word to 
the Church of Rome, which had been a cruel step- 
mother to many of them; and to it the "Dying Mother" 
bequeaths her own example ! 

Then to her beloved sisters, first, to the Helvetic 
Brotherhood, to whom John Calvin had been sent, 
that he might bring them as a chaste virgin, to Christ, 
the "Mother" bids farewell, rejoicing that this Brother- 
hood has discipline; and bequeaths her wish, that they 
may be more and more thoroughly established upon 
Christ; that they may abound in love, as well as in 



THE COMING OF THE SLAV 147 

knowledge; that they may be more reverent, not seeking 
by their reason to pry too deeply into the mysteries of 
God. Referring to various sects, some in England, and 
their dangerous work, she commends to her sister the 
prayer of David, Ps. 25:21: "Let integrity and 
uprightness preserve me." 

Also she addresses her German sister, who had been 
her best beloved sister, but whose love for her in 
estrangement had grown cold. Her bequest is the wish 
for more discipline; and for a better understanding of 
the doctrine, ''by faith alone" which had been abused, 
to the neglect of good works. Luther's building was 
good, but unfinished, and now they are only living in 
its ruins. "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now 
made perfect by the flesh .^" It is all in vain to 
have a mere knowledge of Christ; they would deceive 
themselves, to seek the consolations of the gospel 
without observing the law of love. 

The "Mother" then turns to all Christians, earnestly 
exhorting all to seek for more mutual love and unity. 
Finally, she turns to the Bohemian nation, and to 
Moravia. "I turn first to you, my native country, 
and entrust to you my treasures." And here is the 
prophecy above mentioned as to the return of righteous- 
ness to that land. Her parting wish is that they may 
love the truth of God as taught by John Huss, and that 
they might grant freedom to the truth; that they use 
the Bible to learn more of God, since it has been so 
well translated from the original languages; that they 
maintain discipline, without which there could not be 
Christian life; that they be whole-hearted, not dividing 
their heart with the world; that they retain their 
Bohemian language in its classic purity; and that they 
care for the education of youth, in which other nations 
had made progress, while in Bohemia it had been 
neglected. 



148 THE COMING OF THE SLAV 

"And what more shall I say? I must speak to you 
as Jacob did to his sons, or as Moses to his people: 
'Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a 
well; whose branches run over the wall. The archers 
have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated 
him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms 
of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the 
Mighty God of Jacob.' Let Bohemia live and not die, 
and let not her men be few. 'Bless, Lord,' her 
'substance, and accept the work of her 'hands: smite 
through the loins of them that rise against' her, 
'and of them that hate' her, 'that they rise not again.' 
'The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are 
the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the 
enemy from before thee; and shall say. Destroy them.' 
'Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing 
is upon thy people.' " 



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